Dear Heavenly Father, now we thank you for how perfect your word is. All around us, there's flaws and failures, but thank you that when we come to your word, there is no flaw. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to see that flawlessness this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. So throughout all of 2 Peter chapter 2, what have we been doing? False teachers, false teachers, false teachers. Peter has been putting the false teachers front and center. They've been, it seems, the main theme. Their sin, their error, the horrors, really, and it has been the horrors of their coming destruction. This has been no easy thing, really, to look at. Last week we saw the reality of the false teacher's apostasy, and that it's real. We saw the fact that they had once escaped from the defilements of the world. through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then, after escaping, they've been entangled in them again. So that now the last state is actually worse for them than the first state was. It could be easy then, while we're going through chapter two, to think that this is all about the false teachers, and to lose the proper perspective, remembering that The ones Peter is writing to is the Christians, not the false teachers. He's writing to us, but yet all along he's been, all these false teachers we forget he's writing to us. And so we've been reminding ourselves each week that the reason Peter spends all this time exposing the false teachers is as a warning to us. So that we ourselves, so that I, Timothy, so that you put your name there, will not be deceived. It is not the false teachers that Peter is concerned about. He's not trying to wake the false teachers up. Actually, he's not even trying to bring them again to repentance. Although if that happened, great. Rather, Peter's writing to all of us who are still walking in the straight way. the way of righteousness. And even those of us, I'll say this, he's writing even to those of us, maybe this morning, who may be succumbing. See, there's that level where, again, in God and his sovereignty, he knows there are the reprobate, there are those who apostatize, but there are also those who begin succumbing to the enticements of the world. And Peter writes to them, too. so that he might call them back to be renewed in repentance. So I want to say that this is not just to those of us who are still faithfully, though with failures, yes, but still faithfully walking in the way of righteousness and repentance and faith. It's also written to those of us here who may be succumbing and need to be brought again to repentance. We're reminded of this again in chapter three. When Peter says, this is now, beloved, the second letter that I am writing to you. Peter starts out this chapter, this chapter three, with what is, in Greek, the vocative mood. There's this subductive mood of let us, or the indicative mood of this is how it is, or the imperative mood is this is how it shall be, and there's the vocative mood of, let me talk to you. And that's how he begins here with evocative mood of direct address. Direct address. In chapter two, there was a lot of third person talking about they and them and those false teachers. Now he comes to chapter three and he says, this is now beloved talking to you. If Peter was writing just to me, Peter might have said, this is now Timothy. the second letter that I'm writing to you, or more accurately, he might have said, this is now, O Beloved One. Perhaps then we could translate here in 2 Peter 3, this is now in your handout, O Beloved Ones. This letter is not written to the false teachers, or even for the false teachers. It's not written for them. It's written to us. for us, and so three more times in chapter three, okay? We didn't see this beloved ever, not in chapter one, not in chapter two, but now at the beginning, and then three more times, Peter uses this vocative of direct address. Do not overlook this one fact, beloved ones. Therefore, beloved ones, since you know and are waiting for these, and then in chapter 17, you therefore, beloved ones, knowing this beforehand. And so you just get a sense of, after chapter two, this sigh of relief. Here is a word, filled, filled, with encouragements. And I use the plural, encouragements, because they're manifold with comforts. Especially after all the warnings and the judgments of chapter 2. Peter has written chapter 2 for our benefit, yes. But here's the key, this is what we see now. Not so we will be filled with doubt and fear. Peter's written chapter 2 so that as we heed those warnings and as we, yes, learn to tremble at those warnings and are brought to recognize our sin and our frailty and to repent of our sin, we might, in your handout, rejoice all the more. See, that's the purpose of chapter 2, believe it or not. That we might be brought to rejoice all the more because of what? Our place within. the household and the family of God. Peter addresses us personally, directly. And I know it's right that you hear him say this to you, that we do this morning. Oh, beloved ones. One commentator points out that the ones normally called beloved were children, especially only children. And so we read in Genesis chapter 22, God said to Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. And then when the Greeks translated that into Greek, or the Jews translated into Greek, they did it like this. God said to Abraham, take your son, your beloved one. Instead of your only, they say your beloved one, whom you love, Isaac. Jesus tells a parable in Mark where there was a father who apparently had only one son. He had still one other, a beloved son. What we see then is that this word agape, you know the word agape for love, this is the word agapetas, beloved. It was a word used in the context of the family, of the family, and it spoke of those special bonds of love, of loyalty, of affection that exist there in the family. especially of parents towards their children and even of parents toward an only child. We need to get a picture of this word beloved. So in light of all that, consider how the Apostle John speaks of Jesus as the only son. of the Father, John 1. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. If then Jesus is the only Son of the Father, are you surprised when Jesus is called by His Father His Beloved? So Matthew 3, when Jesus was baptized immediately, he went up from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son. Really echoing the words of God to Isaac, to Abraham regarding his beloved son Isaac that he called him to go sacrifice and then provided a ram. Now then God sends his beloved son, his only son, to the cross. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. In Matthew 17, we hear it again on the Mount of Transfiguration. I'll just read at the end. While Peter was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son. with whom I am well pleased. Okay, so now, it's against that backdrop. You got the backdrop in mind? It's against, it's in that context that Jesus, of Jesus' relationship to God, you think of Jesus' relationship to God as a beloved and only son to his father. That we are to understand, you and me, our own relationship to God as now our father. And therefore, as those who really and truly are His, what? His beloved ones. His beloved sons and daughters. This is the message that I was longing to preach all the way through chapter two. with all that about destruction and danger and warning and apostasy, and yet it was only after that chapter that we could fully appreciate the beauty of this message, of these verses, of this word. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive. He sent forth His only Son so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters. Because you are sons and daughters, God has sent the spirit of his son, the Holy Spirit, into our hearts, into my heart, to yours, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. See, let's look at it this way. Who of us could claim to be God's only son? That would be blasphemy. None of us could say, I am God's only son, and yet he has an only son, doesn't he? His only son, Jesus. So then, how do we get off claiming that we are sons and daughters of God? How can that be? How is that miracle? Well, by God's calling and grace, we are in his only son. And the Spirit of His only Son, the Holy Spirit, is in us so that now we too may rest, may rest, truly rest, in being called His beloved. Beloved children of the God who is now our Father. We remember what Jesus taught his disciples to pray, Our Father. I was listening to someone speak recently and he talked about how he grew up as a devout Roman Catholic and how he prayed the Our Father. How many times a day? How many times a week? I didn't grow up in that way, but I know many of you, some of you did. And he talked about when the spirit first regenerated and brought him to life and gave him that spirit of sonship, the true spirit of his only son, that he prayed the first time the Lord's Prayer and he said, our Father. for the first time he understood because he had that spirit of sonship. Do you have that this morning? This is God's gift to us. Here is a reality that truly is beyond my strength or our capacity to ever fully understand. So we read in Romans and then we read in Ephesians, to all those in Rome who are beloved by God, and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Be imitators of God as his beloved children. Peter writes, this is now beloved, the second letter that I am writing to you. So, is Peter referring to his writers as those who are beloved by God? See, when he says beloved, What does he mean? Beloved, beloved by God, or beloved, I love you. Which one is it? Well, it's both, isn't it? It's both. So in Romans 16, Paul sends his greetings to a large group of people, and he refers to three of them as my beloved. So you greet my beloved, Eponidas. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet my beloved, Stachus. In Philippians 4, Paul writes this. My brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Then, I love what he says in Philemon, for this perhaps is why Onesimus was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant, but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother. especially to me, but now much more to you. So now, as we put this together, look how it works. The familial, the family concept of the father and his beloved children. That's who you are. I see a bunch of beloved children out here. That leads to the familial concept of beloved brothers and sisters. Peter can address his readers as his own beloved. I can speak to you as my beloved because you are all together and we are all together beloved of God the Father. What a wonderful picture. So what we have is truly a family and sometimes I think we think that we have the real families and then this other family is kind of like our family. But no, this is the real family, and our families are all like that family. What we have here is a family of which all other families, even at their very best, are only a copy and a shadow. If you think you've got a great family, maybe, full of loyalty and affection and love, and you just love getting together at family reunions and spending time together, that's not the real family. That's good. But it's a copy and a shadow of this family. This family. And if you have a family that's broken, a family that's not fun to be around, you can take comfort in the fact that there is this family that God has given to you. And so I think it's significant. All the writers of the New Testament epistles, Paul, Peter, the author of Hebrews, James, John, and Jude, all addressed their readers with this name, beloved. Basic and fundamental to who you are as a Christian. What does it mean to be a Christian? Well, one of the things it means fundamentally is that we are children. Sons and daughters, beloved of God the Father, therefore also beloved of one another. Basic and fundamental to who you are as a Christian is that we're members together of a family. of what Paul calls in Galatians the household of faith, or in Ephesians, the household of God. 1 John 3, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are, and now look, because we're children of God, he can address us as beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Okay. Are you beginning to see? Now, if you weren't with us for the last two months, maybe, going through chapter two, you might not even be able to get the full benefit of this. But you can get enough of it, I trust. But in the light of all that we've seen, in the light of everything Peter just said in chapter two, are you seeing the immense comfort? an encouragement of these opening words. The purpose of Peter's warnings in chapter two was not to produce doubt or despair in us. That's not the purpose of any of the warnings in the Bible. So if you read a warning and you begin to doubt and be filled with despair, that's not the point of the warning. That's not understanding them rightly. The purpose is rather to produce in me and in you an even greater, more joyful assurance as children of God the Father and beloved brothers and sisters of Peter who have learned to tremble at these warnings. That's how it works. Peter hasn't written chapter two assuming the worst about us. Like, okay guys, here's the deal and I hope you're in and I hope you make it. And he writes chapter two assuming the things that belong to future salvation. He assumes it. This is why he begins chapter three. This is now beloved. All of a sudden, there it is, breath of fresh air, and we see why he wrote. This is why throughout the rest of the chapter, three more times, he addresses us as his beloved. Peter wants his readers to rejoice. He wants you and me to rejoice. But here's the key, not with presumption. Chapter two forbids that. But with true humility and awe, that contrary to the false teachers, contrary to them, chapter two, we are those who are inside. Within the circle of the family. as brothers and sisters, beloved sons and daughters of God the Father. I thought it was interesting when I looked through where all this word beloved is used. The writer of Hebrews uses it one time, the word beloved. Now Hebrews is known for its warnings. I don't know if that's what you know Hebrews for, but there's lots of serious warnings in Hebrews. And you know where the one time this word beloved shows up in the book of Hebrews is? Sure enough, it's in one of those warnings. I want to read it to you. Hebrews 6, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance. Trembling here. since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain and often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, O beloved ones, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to future salvation. You see here again in Hebrews that immense encouragement and comfort and peace that one simple word affords us. So we know that the real warnings, they're real warnings we saw last week. We don't do last week again. These are real warnings though in Hebrews and in Peter. They're intended not to produce doubt, despair. They're intended to be the means God uses to preserve you and to guard you and to keep you as those who are his beloved children. We know that what the Father intends, what the Father intends for these warnings to accomplish in the life of his beloved children, they will accomplish. They will. In other words, they will always accomplish in your handout. In other words, these real warnings are just one of the means God uses to guarantee that those who are his beloved sons and daughters will never ever be disowned, never ever cast off by him. Now it's true, these warnings also come to people who are hypocrites. These warnings come to people who are pretending and pretending even to themselves and giving all the outward signs deceiving themselves and everyone around them that they're believers. They come to them too. And they have a different result in them. But to those who are God's children, they always, never, ever fail to keep them. After all the sobering warnings, after all the learning to heed and tremble, Peter begins chapter three like this. This is now, beloved. the second letter that I am writing to you, and both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. Now, I don't know, it's interesting when you read that verse, why does Peter point out this is the second letter he's writing to his beloved readers? We have the same language in two other places, it's not gonna be on the screen, but let me just read it. Esau said, rightly was his name called Jacob, for lo, this is now the second time that he has supplanted me. And then in John 21, John says, this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples. And Peter says, this is now, beloved, the second letter that I am writing to you. Let's see what he's doing, don't we? What he's saying is something like this. If the first letter was already a reminder, what is this when I write to you again? How much more is the second letter, a reminder, coming as it does after the first one? It's the reminder after the reminder, and therefore this reminder, as with the previous reminder, must be of the utmost importance. Being beloved children doesn't mean we're exempt from the need for reminders, does it? In fact, it is as beloved children that these reminders have become now so essential That's why they're essential now, because we're children. I tend to believe that the first reminder is 1 Peter that we have in our Bibles and not a letter that's lost to us. It's true. 1 Peter and 2 Peter have different themes. 1 Peter is about Christians suffering and persevering in the midst of suffering. 2 Peter is about Christians and the dangers of false teaching and persevering in the midst of false teaching. But Peter views both of these letters, 1 and 2 Peter, in the same way because all the teaching and all the exhortation in both of those letters is rooted in the same gospel teachings that his readers already know, that you already know, you already know it. And what is that? It's the life, it's the death. the burial, the resurrection of Christ. It's his present reign, even now as we sit here today at the right hand of God and his coming again in glory, which Peter has reminded us of. Everything Peter writes is ultimately a reminder, everything. of these things, of the things we already know in order that we might be constantly stirred up and aroused and awakened to keep on running the race. to keep on fighting the good fight. I used the example this morning to my kids of if one of them is sleeping and I needed to arouse and awaken and stir them up. That's the picture here. You get a sharp little stick, which I don't do. But you use it to just kind of poke and prod. And pretty soon, they're awake and they're aroused. And that's what Peter's doing with these reminders. He gives us these reminders to poke and to prod and to arouse and to awaken us. To keep on, to keep on running the race and fighting the good fight. So what's the point of chapter two with all of its terrifying language of apostasy and judgment and destruction? Not to paralyze with fear and despair, but to stir you up. Our sincere minds, by way of Reminder Now. I love that. Did you hear that? What kind of mind is Peter stirring up? Our sincere minds. See, we've got to find this balance. See how Peter still continues to, in your handout, assume. But without any hint of presumption. There's a difference between assuming something about you and about myself and presuming and having a presumption. Peter assumes. He doesn't say, well, I guess I have no idea. I haven't seen the book of life, so I'm not even going to talk about you as though you were true Christians. I can't even talk like that anymore. No, he says, beloved. He says, stir up your sincere minds. Look what he does. He's not filled with doubt about us. He guards us from presumption, but he calls us to confidence. What a miracle. Look, the NIV. changes the meaning of this. And I want us to see this, not just to pick on the NIV here. Sometimes it gets it better than other translations. But the NIV says, dear friends, which I think it really, I think we really should have beloved there. This is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to a sincere mind. See what it did? You might begin to think there that maybe they don't have sincere minds and they need the sincere minds. That's not what Peter says. It misses the wonderful reality that Peter's actually affirming what his readers already have. He's echoing here in chapter 3 exactly what he wrote in chapter 1. 2 Peter 1, therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, of these qualities, though you know them and are already established in the truth that you have. How can Peter say that? Well, because he's confident. He sees the fruits in their lives. He sees repentance. No, he's not God. He doesn't know as God knows. No, but he can still speak with confidence. knowing that God is the one who keeps his children. I think it right then, as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder. And so, I'll just say it here, you can put it in your handout. There is no room in any of what Peter has written to us for presumption. Because apostasy is real. but neither is there room in any of what Peter has written to us for doubt or for despair. This is a wonderful thing. Peter assumes without any doubts that we are his beloved brothers and sisters. I love how he does that. and that our thinking and our understanding has not been polluted by the deceits of the false teachers, it is not. Our thinking is simple, it's unmixed, it's pure, not in the sense of being morally perfect, we're not that yet, but in the sense of a true sincerity of repentance and faith in Jesus. That's how he writes to us. On the other hand, Peter knows that this sincere mind that we already have stands in need of being always constantly stirred up by way of reminder. Because a sincere mind that's not stirred up stands in danger of apostasy. That's a non-negotiable. If you would be granted entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ one day, our minds must be stirred up. That's why we come here every Sunday. Do you know why we come here every Sunday? It's because our future life depends on it. Really, it's because this is the means that God uses to stir up and to keep his elect whom he has once justified and who he will cause to persevere and he will preserve until they enter into their final inheritance. This is so important, so important. So we see that if there's no room here for doubts and fears, neither is there room for presumption. Paul says in Corinthians, and we quote this maybe a lot at times as Christians, but it says, let everyone who thinks that he stands. Now what does that mean? It doesn't mean let everyone who has a humble confidence in his salvation, who in trusting in Christ knows that he has eternal life. It's not that. Peter assumes. He's talking about a careless, apathetic presumption that I'm in. Let everyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Not fall into discipline, but fall into eternal destruction. Notice what Peter does not say. He doesn't say to us, in both of these letters, I am congratulating you for your sincere mind. That's presumption. Neither does he say, in both of these letters, I am stirring you up to a sincere mind. Look what he says. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind. What Peter means here is that this is the way God keeps us. This is the way God effectually, powerfully guards and preserves and keeps his own beloved children, his beloved sons and daughters. Do you see? God keeps us by means of these constant reminders. What are the reminders? Whether they be promises, okay? Promises God gives us. He keeps us by them as they comfort our souls. He keeps us by comfort, by exhortations, or warnings that cause us to tremble. Why do sincere minds need to be stirred up? Oh, I skipped something here. These reminders do more than just recall information to our brains. They prod us. They poke us. They arouse us. They awaken us. Always to action. Why do sincere minds need to be stirred up? Here's the answer. So that we'll be preserved and kept. In that true sincerity that we have. Never polluted by the deceits of false teaching. but always, always possessing in God's sovereign grace a true repentance, a true faith that is simple and unmixed and pure. If presumption is the prelude to apostasy, and it is, then trembling is just one means by which God preserves us and keeps us. and by which we can be all the more assured that he is the one preserving and keeping us until we enter into our final inheritance. What was the point of chapter two? Well, the point was this, that all of God's elect should be kept and preserved safe until the end. Therefore, Peter writes, this is now, beloved, the second letter that I am writing to you. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. So I ask you, and this is not rhetorical, as we've read through 1 Peter, what are the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets? What are those words? Well, there are all the many Old Testament warnings of God, the righteous judge, coming to judge the world. So that our sincere minds would even now then be stirred up. So I would just say to you, if I could say it now, beloved, beloved, With all that that word means, I think it would be good and right for us this morning to listen to some of these words this morning so that our sincere minds would be stirred up, so that we would be poked and prodded, and awakened and aroused by way of reminder. Or maybe, and I say this, maybe there are some here who have still not yet truly repented. and trusted in Christ. Maybe there are some here who have known the way of righteousness, but appear to and maybe have fallen away. May these words awaken you to your peril. Malachi chapter three. I know you look at a lot of words here. I may skip. But these are the words Peter wanted us to remember. So let's read and be stirred up. Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who do not fear me, says the Lord of Hosts. Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Behold, the Lord will scatter the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers. The world languishes and withers. The highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are scorched and few men are left. Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare, for the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken, the earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut, its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and it will not rise again. On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. And his glory will be before his elders. Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine-press is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. Not our decision, but God's decision that He makes concerning us. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth quake, but the Lord is a refuge to his people. A stronghold to the people of Israel. Isaiah 59. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away. For truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it. and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought him salvation and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so will he repay. wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies. To the coastlands he will render repayment, so they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun, for he will come. Like a rushing string, which the wind of the Lord drives. and a Redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord. Beloved. Beloved. These are the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets that the apostle Peter wants to prod and arouse and awaken, stir you up with so that we learn to tremble. So that our sincere minds will be always preserved, always persevering in genuine repentance and saving faith. Faith in who? In Christ alone. Christ alone. We've asked, what are the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets? Now we ask, what is the commandment of the Lord and Savior through the apostles? It's just this, it's genuine repentance and saving faith. That we should all believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I ask myself now, do I believe? And I answer by grace, yes, I do believe. And by God stirring me up, I will always believe and continue in repentance until Christ comes as the judge of all the earth. 1 John 3, this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, who suffered the penalty for all of our sin, who rose again from the dead that we might have life in him. We believe in the name of his only son Jesus Christ and that we love one another just as he has commanded us. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy, we looked at it last week. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. Jesus persevered and was faithful until the end. And now Peter charges us. Remember, Peter, the one who denied Jesus three times in the garden. But what did Jesus say to Peter? Peter, Satan has demanded that he might sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, that when once you have turned, and he knew he would turn, strengthen your brothers. And so this Peter now exhorts us, or Paul exhorts us here, to keep the commandment unstained, free from reproach, with a sincere mind using Peter's language. until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's one commentator who writes, in biblical thinking, reminders grip the whole person so that we are possessed again by the gospel and its truth. its truth so that we are energized to live for the glory of God. So I ask myself, and truly I need these reminders, I felt that this week, and I would ask all of us, have our sincere minds truly been stirred up? by these reminders. Have we put away all foolish presumption? Put it away. And have we learned to tremble? And then in learning to tremble, have we also learned at the very same time to put away all doubts, and all fears, and all despair? Because this trembling is, in the end, the fruit of a sincere mind, of a true repentance and saving faith. This trembling is, in the end, simply the means that God is using to preserve, to guard, and to keep all of us who are His beloved children. Peter wants his readers to rejoice, and he wants us to rejoice, not with presumption, but with humility and awe, that contrary to chapter two and the false teachers, we, we are those who are inside. within the circle of the family, as beloved sons and daughters of God, as brothers and sisters beloved of one another. What a truly wonderful place to be. Let me read Peter's words as we close. This is now, beloved, the second letter that I am writing to you. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that that stick is poking and prodding us right now. And I pray that, especially in terms of the warnings, and maybe there are some who have been succumbing to the enticements of the world, maybe there are some who it may appear have already apostatized, I pray that that stick would be the sharp stick of these warnings, and that it would indeed arouse and awaken to renewed repentance. to faith in Christ. Lord, help us to know and to hear the Word of the Lord when He says to us through the prophets, Behold, I am coming. Lord, as we, as we as only, really only as true children can do, as we tremble at these realities, I pray that you would cause us to rejoice greatly in the salvation that you have effected for us through Christ's death on the cross and the reality that we can now be called those who are beloved of God, his beloved sons and daughters. Do your work in us through these reminders, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.