In our Bibles this morning, let's once again return to the book of 2 Peter, chapter 1, starting in verse 12. Verses 12 through 15. So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure, you will always be able to remember these things. Let us pray. give you praise, say blessed be your name, worthy are you to be honored and adored, because you are our God and our King. Thank you for leaving us your word, for giving us revelation of yourself, and for passing down the truth that has been taught to us. So we look upon the transmission of truth and particularly reminding people of truth that we may already know, that we may already practice. Would you open up our hearts and our minds, open up our entire beings to the molding and the work of your Spirit that we may be more conformed to the image of your Son and closer to you in fellowship with you and with one another. Father, we pray that today's message would come forth with clarity, consistent with your truth, accurately and with understanding. In these things we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. I don't know about you, but I frequently need to be reminded of things. In particular, my schedule. There are many times where I have so-called double booked myself because I did not remember that I had an appointment or some or some other obligation before saying yes to get another person or another event. It's frequent that I need to be reminded about things that I may have already known, but have let slip my mind, or have gone to the back burner, so to speak. Well, our text today deals with the idea of being reminded of things that we already know, being reminded of things that have already been taught to us, and being reminded of things, in the words of the author of this text, of things that we may already well be established in. This passage of scripture deals in every single verse with the idea of being reminded, of bringing to memory, of teaching that which is already known and has already been taught. This is a message and an idea which in our current setting here in Western Christianity, particularly in the United States, is very difficult for us to grab a hold of because we are obsessed with the new. We are obsessed with the undiscovered. We are obsessed with, I like to say, shiny. We like things to be new. We get tired of that which has already been done very quickly. And this passage of scripture is something that tells us that when we are tempted to be enamored with that which is new, tells us to just hold on a minute. We cannot forget that which has already been delivered. Even though the scriptures tell us that we need not revisit in the sense of reestablishing a foundation of certain things that we've already learned, it does not say leave them behind in the dust to never talk about them ever again. This passage builds upon that which we've already been talking about in this book in which we've been dealing with this series of virtues that we see starting in verse 5. This is actually the fourth section of this text that deals with these virtues and transitions to the next section. These virtues, as a reminder, he urges them in verse 5, Peter urges his readers to build upon that which was from the beginning, to build upon their faith, to add to their faith goodness, and to that to add knowledge, and then self-control, and perseverance, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and then love. He urges them to do so, not because It is all based upon them, but it is based upon the fact that God has given them everything they need in order to pursue life and godliness as Christians. God has given us everything we need to pursue these. Additionally, walking in these and growing in these ensures that these things will not be causes of us being unfruitful and unproductive in the Lord, but rather they will serve to help us to grow and help us to be reminded of that which we have. Additionally, in doing so, we confirm our calling and our election. And in this verse, he says, so building upon that which came before, he says, so I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. There are two elements to this reminder. There is the one who is doing the reminding, and there are those who are being reminded. First of all, As teachers of the Word of God, as people who seek to instruct people in God's Word, teachers of Christian truth, whether they be teaching in the capacity of pastors or Sunday school teachers, or Bible studies, or sitting down with Christians at a coffee shop and sharing the Word of God with them, teaching as Christians, we must understand, is not something that is all about discovering the undiscovered. Teaching as a Christian is not about the new. Teaching as a Christian, whether it would be my preaching as a pastor or the Sunday school teaching, is about delivering that and explaining that which has been revealed. the history of western society, a period known as the Enlightenment followed by modernism took us away from the idea that truth is revealed to us and rather we came to the conclusion that rather than truth being revealed to us we ourselves are the ones who make our own truth as a race, as a human race but rather truth is something that is revealed The one who would teach others is the one who must understand that truth is something that is revealed. Peter actually deals with that in the next section in which he says that that which we have delivered to you is not cleverly devised fables that we just happen to come up with but what we delivered to you is something that was revealed to us. And so the first thing we need to understand as people who would teach the Word of God is that We are teaching and delivering and explaining that which is revealed. That is, someone told us what truth is. Now that someone is God. And the place where He has told us where His truth is, is found in the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. There is truth that can be seen in nature and truth that can be seen in creation. The scriptures make plain God's truth. The scriptures make plain that which God has made known to us. So the first thing we need to remember when it comes to helping other Christians be established in their Christian faith is that it is not about coming up with truth, but it is about that which is revealed. But we move forward from that, as well, in this text. In this text, we have this idea of reminding of truth which has already been taught. Truth which has already been received. You see, from the standpoint of one who is a preacher, who has a responsibility of instructing God's people in the truth. That's one of my roles as a pastor here at Good Shepherd. I can never take upon myself the attitude that says, oh, this again? Because reminding people of that which has already been delivered is a fundamentally important task for the health of Christianity. We as Christians must never find ourselves getting tired of receiving that which we already know to be true. And if hearing that which we already know to be true, we need reminding and we need to remind each other. Throughout the Old Testament, we can see instructions to God's people. to regularly and to repetitively instruct the people of the covenant community in that which has been revealed and that which has already been known. For instance, one of the most famous passages regarding to the instruction in the covenant life of Old Testament Israel is found in the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 6. A passage that is known as the Shema. from the Hebrew word Shema, which means listen or hear. Verse 4 says, Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on your door frames of your houses and on your gates. Do you hear the repetitiveness in there? Repetitiveness is not a bad thing. Being reminded of that which we already know is not a bad thing. Even the world recognizes the reality of that. For instance, engineers and medical practitioners in some fields have to regularly undergo recertification. They need to demonstrate that they still have in their mind that which they already have known. Classes are taught to help people know that. How much more so with the eternal truths of God's Word? And so we who have different types of teaching roles in the life of the church, whether it's pastors, whether it's as a parent to your child, whether it's in a Sunday school, whether it's leading a Bible study, we must not be afraid of reminding people. I remember many years back as a young Christian, I was maybe four years old as a Christian, and a very good friend of mine was getting married, and I was part of the wedding party. We sat around after we had our game of parking lot football at the bachelor's party. We went and got together with the man who's getting married, his wedding party, the man, and we all gave exhortations to the man. And they were all giving these exhortations that have all this experience behind them and various different things as well as ideas from the scriptures that I hadn't realized or thought of and I thought, what in the world do I have to contribute to this? So I just delivered basic truth. Truth that I knew. And that I knew that this man knew. And he was very thankful for that because it was reminders of basic things that had to be known and that were necessary for life and Christianity. We as teachers must not be afraid to deliver that which we know people already know. A teaching is not just merely done by individuals either. If you take a look at the Worship Guide, which is so, I like to say, artfully constructed here at Good Shepherd Community Church, with much labor and with much thought, the Worship Guide is not just a bulletin or set of announcements. It is actually something which contributes to the strengthening of our faith and contains teaching. The teaching of God's Word. Many of our songs are directed not only to God, but to one another. And we are instructing one another with things we already know. This does not mean that we are getting stale. Sometimes people who are obsessed with new think that if there's something not something new all the time, we're getting stale, but we're getting refreshed. But we must realize we're getting refreshed with that which we already know. Sometimes when I'm working through a series and I'm working through a book, sometimes I will find myself wondering if I am I myself in a series of sermons and saying the same thing too many times because the texts happen to all be related to one another. And this text is a comfort to me. When a Christian brother or sister needs your help, when a Christian brother or sister needs assistance, You may not have anything earth-shattering to offer, but if you have the truth of God, even if it's something you know that they already know, which Peter makes clear that it's something they already know, you have something to offer because you're reminding them of life-giving, life-affirming truth. Truth that comes from the eternal God. Even Paul himself, in his own letters, said, Repetition of truth is a good thing. Being reminded of truth is a good thing. So there's that element of the delivery of truth and the deliverer of truth. There's a message there. But there is also a message for those who are receiving the reminding of truth. You see, there is a possibility that he put this in part, and I can't read Peter's mind, but there's a possibility that he put this language in here, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have, and saying, I find it necessary to remind you of things, because there's concern, maybe some folks are saying, are you insulting my intelligence? Sometimes we may have the temptation, if somebody reminds us of that which we already know, for us to say, I am well beyond that and have no need to be taught that. I am far more advanced than you. Do you hear the pride in that thinking? But how many times do we hear that when we might read things on the internet or in magazines or comment threads of people saying, why do we even need to go back here? And I would argue it is because of that very statement that demonstrates why we need to go back there. We must never say, I am beyond this or we are above this. Simply because somebody reminds you of something you already know, and Peter's dealing here with these virtues, does not mean that the person is saying that you don't know this, nor is the person saying you're not practicing them. But rather it is reminding us to continue to put them into practice and to continue to grow in them. You see, the message to grow in that which God has already revealed, and that which we may already know, is not just for the young Christian. One commentator said that this serves as a means, this repetition and reminding serves as a means to the well-established and to the mature Christian, serves as a means to avoid complacency and satisfaction. You notice, Peter in his language with regards to the virtue, does not allow the Christian to say that, I have arrived. And being reminded of these things helps us to remember that you and I have not arrived. I very recently heard a very disturbing message from a relatively popular preacher, who himself has been very well known to not have very sound teaching. But in which he argued that your co-workers do not believe, your family does not believe, and your fellow students don't believe, Because you're preaching to them about things they've already heard. You're preaching to them about Jesus and the blood. And it's because you're preaching that old stuff that they don't believe. It is arrogant for us to say that we need not be reminded. Truth. And any truth that we receive is something that helps us. Anytime you read the scriptures, if you've read Romans, to say that I don't need to hear that which I already know and I'm already established in, is for me to say that I just need to read Romans once and that's it. Don't ever need to read it again. To put in another type of illustration and another way of looking at it, to say that I've had a really good steak one time means I never need to eat another, never should never have another steak again. Anytime you and I hear truth, brother and sister, because you have faith, because the Holy Spirit is present in you, you receive benefit. I could ask you, what did you eat for lunch today, three and a half years ago? You probably won't remember. So it is with truth. A message you heard, or someone giving you some advice from the Scriptures, or a song that we sung, or a Bible study you went to may not have been particularly earth-shattering. Sometimes I think we get caught up into the idea that every single time we approach Scripture, or every time we hear a sermon, it needs to be a heaven-opening experience. If you have faith, you have been nourished and you have been fed and you have benefited. And so to hear that which we already know, if it is truth, it benefits us. To say we move forward from the foundational things and things that we are already established in is not to say that we need not be reminded of them. If that were the case, there's no point in us ever mentioning the word Jesus again. The name of our Savior. So we see the importance of being reminded of truth. Being reminded of things we already know. Let us not become impatient with somebody saying to us things that are true that we may already know. And let us not be afraid to remind people of things that we know they already know. And to revisit, not relay a foundation, not reestablish, but to remind and strengthen that which is already there. Even though we already know something and we are established in it, just like when you read a book from the Bible another time, you may have read it 30 or 40 times, when you read it again, you find something in which you grow in. So it is with being reminded of truth. So that's what we have in verse 12. Verses 13 and 14, we have Peter's attitude towards this. Which actually reflects something that Paul said in the book of Philippians. You see, Peter, if we remember, at the end of the book of John, Peter was basically told by Jesus that you are going to die a very painful death. And he told that to essentially all the disciples save John. John was not going to die prematurely. at the end of the book of John. Peter had that at the front of his mind, no doubt, and he brings it up here, because he says in verse 14, I know that I will soon put it aside in terms of the tent of his body. As our Lord Jesus has made clear to me, that's no doubt a reference to back what we have in John chapter 20 and 21. But notice how Peter is responding to that reality. That he's probably going to die soon. He is not responding with saying, I'm just going to coast free now for the remainder of my time. As a popular preacher said some years back, came to the idea of retiring, he said, you shouldn't live for the purpose of retiring, you've got all eternity for retirement. Notice what he is dedicating himself to, to those to whom he is writing. He says, I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body. To deliver and to strengthen the people of God in the truth. To strengthen them in that which is already known. That's not the only thing that he's doing. But he is seeing his time on earth as a servant of God, as a servant of his people. He sees his time as existing not for himself, but for those to whom he has been given as a leader and as a teacher. And one does not need to be in a church office to have this applicable to them, because the basic principle behind this is that we have been called to God as his people in Christ Jesus. to serve Him and to serve one another. And a fundamental means by which this is lived out is teaching one another truth. The passing on of truth, the passing on of that which we already know, The passing on of that which we're already established in is something we as the people of God must not be something to be afraid of, but something we should remember we exist in part for the purpose of doing. One reason Christianity as a collective in various societies becomes nominal, that is, Christian in name only, is because of a neglect to teach that which is already known, and to pass on that which we think people already know. One of the failures and one of the reasons we have so-called cultural Christianity in many parts of the country and many parts of the world is a failure to evangelize every generation and a failure to connect people with life-giving truth, even that truth which is already known. One reason that we give ourselves to this is because we cannot assume things. We cannot assume that simply because someone has been exposed to truth over and over again, that they know it. That's one reason why we remind people and we remind each other as a whole. But while we live, we exist for the purpose, in part, of passing on truth. to one another, even if that truth, and reminding one another of truth, reminding one another of even those things we already know, that we might know it better, that we might have it more in our hearts, that we might see it in a way we haven't seen it before, that we might put it into practice with more faithfulness and with more vigor. Paul gave instructions to Timothy to take that which had been passed on to him and to pass it on to others who would be faithful to do that which he had done. One element of life together as Christians is spurring one another on. And a fundamental part of spurring one another on is teaching each other. When we gather together, we teach each other in song. It's important that we participate in singing when we get together, whether it's here on Sundays, which is a very important element of our gathering together, or when we see each other and we talk. A very important thing for which we exist is to remind one another of Jesus, to remind one another to live for him and to remind one another to keep growing. I can never hear, Jesus rose from the dead, enough. I can never hear, brother, keep pushing forward, enough. And I can never say, they've heard it from me too many times. Maybe my brother's tired of hearing me talk about the resurrection and my brother's tired of me hearing about how we need to keep pushing forward. Maybe he or she is tired. But that does not mean I should not keep reminding. And listen to his aim. Sometimes we, well I am all about people having Bibles and reading the Bible and having it here, carrying Bibles. When people gathered together in first century Christianity, people didn't carry Bibles with them. It's not because they were against the idea, it's because they didn't have them. You see, scriptures were on scrolls and were on big pieces of paper made out of leaves. And paper, the paper of the day, was very expensive. And the only time people got scripture was when it was read aloud. And he wanted the reminder of it to be so frequent that they would be able to recall it at an instant. Peter was confident that this would happen that they would be able to remember these things even without him there to remind them of these things because he was going to remind them so often how much more so that we have the scriptures should we understand ourselves as responsible to remind one another to look here and to teach one another from here so that we can remember without someone always having to remind us. And if you read the scriptures themselves, you find the scriptures, from the standpoint, as you know I'm in academics, And academia is obsessed with the new. That if you talk about something that's already been talked about, nobody wants to listen to you. And when you read the scriptures, we find the scriptures to be incredibly repetitive, not monotonous. But it's repetitive, dealing with the same things from many different angles, from many different authors, but dealing with the same things. What that means for us, is that we must not say, I have risen above scripture. Because if we say, I don't need to hear that which has already been revealed to me, it's for us almost to say, I don't need to hear scripture. And for me to say, I don't need to remind people of that which they already know, is for me to say, I don't need to read to them scripture. A couple weeks back, Our brother Wayne talked about the principles of worship, gathered worship. One thing he brought up was the idea of the regulative principle versus the normative principle. And whereas I tend in the regulative principle, I'll tolerate the normative principle. But one question I always ask people with the normative principle, I said, do you think you can do better than what God has revealed? Because if we say that I don't need to teach that which I've already taught, I don't need to deal with that which I know people already know, or if we say we don't need to know that which we already know, is for us to say we have done better than God's Word. but rather we must do it so often and remind one another and remind ourselves and revisit these issues so that we can recall them and put them into practice when needed. We are students, disciples of Jesus, His followers. We learn from Him. We're instructed by Him. And as learners, we learn by being reminded and things being repeated. It's not the only way that Scripture tells us to teach, but it is a very important way that we are to teach one another. I exhort those who teach in this church to not be afraid to remind. Those who would give advice from the scriptures, encouraging one another. It's not just the pastor's job to instruct the people of God. To remind us, to remind one another. And to receive that which we've already received. And to hear that which we've already heard. And to be established in that which we're already established. So people of God, let us deliver good reminders, and let us ourselves receive good reminders. Let us pray. Father, thank you for the gift of your word. Thank you for reminding us when we read scripture of truth. Help us to be a people who, while we seek to grow and to push forward into areas that we need to grow into, to not leave behind in the sense of never revisiting that which we already know. To not think that we don't need to be reminded of what we've already been taught. To not think that we need to remind each other of what we've already been taught. But to remind. To repeat. So that we may grow upon that which we already have. And grow in that which we already know. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.