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Dear friends, for the reading of God’s Word, we continue our consideration of 2 Peter,
and this evening we consider 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 12 through 15, though again to fill
out the context a bit, I’m going to begin reading at verse 3 and read through verse
15, and you’ll find that on page 1207 in your Pew Bible.
2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 15, with the focus especially on verses 12 through
15.
Dear friends, this is the Word of God, hear it with reverence and awe.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through
the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has
granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because
of sinful desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue
with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness
with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he
was cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for
if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and
are established in the truth that you have.
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since
I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear
to me.
And I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time
to recall these things.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of His Word tonight.
Well, Heavenly Father, we pray that you would stir us up by way of reminder of these truths
that are revealed to us in this portion of your Holy Scriptures.
We thank you, God, for giving us your Word, and we would pray that by your Spirit you
would help us once again this evening to understand the relevance and significance of this portion
of your Word to our lives as individual believers and especially to the life of the church today.
So be with us now, Lord, give us insight, and help us, Lord, to put into practice that
which we learn from this portion of your Word this evening.
We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said,
Amen.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Well, dear friends, the title of my sermon this evening is Refreshing Your Memory, Refreshing
Your Memory, and the words you can be listening for in my sermon tonight are the words memory,
faith, life, generations, and grace.
Well, my dear friends in Christ, have you ever found yourself walking into a room in
search of something only to forget what you’re looking for upon entering the room?
Now, please tell me I’m not the only one who’s ever experienced that, right?
You know, you say, oh, I need to get something, and you walk into a room, and it’s like, why
did I come here?
What am I looking for?
Or maybe in a moment of distraction or what we used to call spacing out, you misplace
your keys or your cell phone or some other important item, and you just can’t remember
where you put it down.
Maybe you’re busy trying to get groceries into the house or whatever, and you just put
your keys down someplace for a moment or your cell phone or whatever, and then you can’t
remember where you put it, and you’re tearing out your hair trying to find the item that
you just put down, and it’s probably usually when you finally do find it, it’s usually
right under your nose, right?
Don’t you find that to be the case?
Or to maybe bring this home to some of you fellas, you wake up one morning and you suddenly
realize, oh, that’s right, it’s my wife’s birthday.
I completely forgot.
I haven’t planned anything.
I haven’t bought her a present.
Man, am I headed for the dog house.
Personally, I’ve been spared from that scenario since the Lord has blessed me with a wife
whose birthday is very memorable.
It’s December 25th, so I don’t have trouble with that.
But to my embarrassment, I can recall a time, it wasn’t too long ago, a couple years ago,
when I had just gotten a new pair of glasses, a new prescription.
I needed a slight improvement to my prescription, and we had just gotten back from the place
where I had picked up the glasses, and I remember thinking to myself, where did I put my new
pair of glasses?
And I’m tearing through the house, I’m looking in the car, I’m looking in my office area,
I’m looking in our bedroom, I’m like, where did I put the new glasses?
And then I look at myself in the mirror and I’m wearing them.
They’re right on my face.
I thought I was wearing my older prescription.
Well, dear ones, the truth is that our memory muscles can sometimes be flabby, and we can
be prone to forgetfulness.
Not only is this the case when it comes to mundane details of our daily lives, like finding
missing car keys or a misplaced cell phone, poor memory and forgetfulness is especially
a problem for us sinners, even for us believing sinners.
When it comes to what God’s Word teaches us to believe concerning God, and what duty
God requires of us as creatures who are subject to his revealed moral will.
In other words, dear ones, it’s very easy for us to be forgetful when it comes to spiritual
truths and moral duties.
If you have even a modest acquaintance with the scriptures, then you realize that the
Bible, God’s Holy Word, is filled with exhortations and commands for the people of God to remember,
to call to mind both the truths and the doctrines that are revealed by God in his Word, as well
as to call to mind our moral duties, both to God and to our neighbor.
For example, as was read earlier in the service from the Ten Commandments, in the Fourth Commandment,
God tells his people in Exodus 20 verse 8, what does he tell them?
He says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, which seems to indicate that there
is a strong tendency even among believers to forget the day of the Lord, or to not give
it the kind of emphasis that it deserves.
Or consider the multiple times in the Law of Moses where the Lord Yahweh commands and
exhorts the Israelites to remember and to diligently teach the mighty works and commandments
of God, especially to the next generation.
Just as an example, let’s turn briefly to Deuteronomy chapter 6, and let me read a few
verses from Deuteronomy 6 beginning at verse 4.
In that passage, Moses addressing the children of Israel says this, he says,
And when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and
they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with greats and good cities that you did not
build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you
did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and
are full, then take care lest you do what?
Lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
slavery.
It is the Lord your God you shall fear.
Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you.
For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the Lord your God be
kindled against you and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
You see in that passage and passages like it the emphasis on the importance to be diligent
in calling to mind not forgetting the Lord lest you drift away from him.
And of course we celebrated the Lord’s Supper this morning and we think of our Lord’s command
that his church do this in what?
In remembrance of me.
Now in his second letter the Apostle Peter is seeking to equip his readers against the
threat of some false teachers who were promoting a form of false teaching that is typically
called antinomianism which literally means against the law.
This is a false teaching that basically promotes the idea that God’s grace gives believers
an excuse to continue in sin, an excuse to continue to indulge their fleshly passions.
The effect of this false teaching was a practical denial of Christ’s Lordship.
Now in our passage for this evening Peter informs his readers that the Lord had revealed
to him that he was soon to be called home to heaven.
Look at verse 14.
Peter writes, I know that the putting off of my body, literally this tent, will be soon
as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
And so he’s saying I know I’m going to die soon.
I know that soon I’m going to be going home to be with the Lord.
But before he departs from this earthly scene the Apostle Peter assures his readers that
he will make every effort to ensure that they not only know the truth of God by which they
can resist the false teaching that was threatening them but that they will also be able at any
time to remember the Christian virtues to which they have been called and the truth
of God which they have been taught.
Again, as he says in verse 15, and I will make every effort so that after my departure
you may be able at any time to recall or to remember these things.
In other words, Peter wants to make sure that their Christian memories can be refreshed
at any time.
So with all of this in mind, the first thing I want us to consider from our passage for
this Lord’s Day evening is the vital importance of memory in our Christian discipleship.
The vital importance of memory in our Christian discipleship.
This is made clear by the repeated reference to remembering and the concept of calling
to mind that Peter emphasizes in this brief section of chapter one that we’re considering
this evening.
Look at verse 12, he says, therefore I intend always to do what?
To remind you of these qualities.
The qualities he’s referring to are the qualities that he, the Christian virtues that he mentions
back in the previous section which we’ve covered in previous sermons.
And then if you go on to verse 13, he says, I think it right as long as I am in this body
to stir you up by way of what?
By way of reminder.
And then finally verse 15, he says, I will make every effort after my departure so that
you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Now verse 12 begins with the word therefore.
And you know the saying, whenever you see a therefore, you have to ask, what is it therefore?
And what he is saying here by this word therefore is that in view of what he had already said
in the previous section, probably in view of what he had been saying about entrance
into the eternal consummated kingdom of Christ back in verse 11, in view of all of that,
he wants to make sure that they are able to recall at any time the Christian virtues and
the Christian truth that he has taught them and has displayed to them.
And all of this brings to mind, brothers and sisters, the danger of forgetting the Lord
and forgetting especially his mighty acts of salvation.
I already read a passage to us from the book of Deuteronomy, but this is a constant theme
in Deuteronomy that I think Peter is reminding us of even under the new covenant.
So let’s again consider another passage in Deuteronomy that reflects this.
Let’s look at Deuteronomy 8.
Let me just read a few verses from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verses 1 and 2.
Moses the prophet addressing the children of Israel says this, the whole commandment
that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and
go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers, and you shall remember
the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that
he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.
And then skip down to verse 11, where again, the Lord through Moses says to his people,
take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules
and his statutes which I command you today.
And let me just pause there and say that there is a sense in which when we disobey the Lord,
when we violate his commandments, when we sin against the Lord, at that moment, at some
level we are forgetting the Lord.
We are not remembering him.
To forget the Lord is to disobey the Lord.
To disobey the Lord is to forget the Lord.
And then again, verse 12, he goes on to say, lest when you have eaten and are full and
have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your
silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be
lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its
fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you
water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers
did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end.
In other words, beware lest you forget God’s mercy to you.
The things that Moses recounts to the children of Israel here in this passage in Deuteronomy
8 are expressions of God’s grace and mercy to his people.
He had rescued them from slavery.
He had brought them through that wilderness.
He had brought them into the promised land.
He had provided for them in the wilderness.
He had shown them grace and mercy in spite of the fact that they were a rebellious, stiff-necked
people, and so they are not to forget the mighty works of God in saving them and being
merciful to them.
So we are warned here in Scripture in many places about the danger of forgetting the
and his mighty acts of salvation, and perhaps that is a concern that is in the background
of Peter’s statements here in verses 12 through 15, especially as Peter knows that his time
on earth is limited and he has a deep concern for his brothers and sisters that he will
be leaving behind.
He wants to make sure that at any time they will be able to refresh their memories as
followers of Jesus Christ, and so we see, brothers and sisters, the importance of remembering
all that the Lord has done for us, and again, we see this especially, for example, in our
Lord’s institution of the Holy Supper, and I know I preached on that this morning, but
I want to remind us of Luke’s account of our Lord’s institution of the Supper.
In Luke chapter 22, verses 19 through 20, where Jesus says this, where it says, and
he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This
is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
This is a memorial meal, a covenant meal, as I shared this morning.
Verse 20, and likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured
out for you is the new covenant in my blood, and so forth.
Beloved, being regularly reminded of the truth that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died
on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification and that we might
receive the gift of eternal life, I know that we know that, but do we know it?
We need to hear it over and over and over again.
Christians need the Gospel, too.
We need it week in and week out.
That’s one of the reasons why we gather for worship on the Lord’s Day.
That’s one of the reasons why we encourage you, why the Word of God encourages us and
exhorts us to be in the Word and to be in prayer.
For we need to recall to mind all that the Lord has done for us.
And we need to daily take those Gospel truths to heart.
This is vital for our spiritual health and well-being as individual believers.
It is vital to our spiritual health and well-being as the Church of Jesus Christ, and it’s vital
for our spiritual health and well-being for those of us who are couples and families.
This is why I would encourage you, brothers and sisters, in your family life, to engage
in family devotions.
Read Scripture together.
Pray together.
It doesn’t have to be fancy.
It doesn’t have to be long.
But just remind yourself regularly, ideally daily, of all that the Lord has done for you.
What are some of the tools, the God-given tools that are revealed in Scripture for aiding
us in our Christian memory in calling to mind these truths and these virtues that we are
called to as God’s people?
Well, one of the obvious ways that we do so is the diligent use of the means of grace.
This is a practice that gets much emphasis in our Reformed tradition, and it’s important.
We are called to diligently use the means of grace.
The means of grace, the primary means, of course, being the Word of God.
The Word is central to the life of the Church, and it is central to our lives as individual
believers.
We diligently use the means of grace through such things as regular Bible reading, Scripture
memorization, and so forth.
And then there’s the sacraments, of course, and there is prayer.
But there’s also the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
When we gather together for worship and we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
yes, these are vehicles for offering our praises to God, but these are also aids to our Christian
memory.
When we sing the psalms, when we’re singing God’s Word when we sing the psalms, and when
we sing a sound Bible-based hymns and songs of the faith, we are praising God through
those means, but we are also remembering who the Lord is and all that He has done for us.
One of the greatest things that you can do, one of the most effective things that you
can do in terms of memorizing gospel truth is to sing the truth of the gospel.
This came home to me, well, think about how you learned the alphabet.
My guess is that most of us, when we were young, learned the alphabet by learning to
sing the alphabet song, right?
I remember in seminary, one of the areas of study in my seminary studies that I really
struggled with was, quite frankly, the languages.
I needed to get tutoring in both Greek and Hebrew in order to pass those exams and so
forth.
I remember when I was just beginning my study of the Hebrew language, I was struggling to
learn at the very beginning of those studies, I was struggling to learn the Hebrew alphabet.
In order to get that alphabet into my brain, I invented this really silly little ditty,
this little song, and that enabled me to remember the Hebrew alphabet.
I won’t sing it for you this evening, but it worked for me at least.
Or think about the sacraments, not just the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, but even baptism.
Our confessional standards talk about the importance of improving our baptism.
You might say, well, I was baptized as a baby, I don’t remember my baptism.
How do I improve my baptism?
Whether you remember it or not, if you have been baptized into the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, sacramentally speaking, God’s name has been placed upon
And that has great implications for your life.
Through your baptism, God calls you to die to sin and live unto righteousness.
He calls you to trust in Christ, in Christ alone, to turn from your sin, putting it to
death in His death and rising to newness of life in union with Him.
So we improve our baptism by reflecting on what our baptism means for us, that we are
called to be consecrated to the Lord.
We are called to be a set-apart people.
How often, brothers and sisters, do you reflect on your baptism?
Even if you can’t remember it, even if it happened when you were an infant, do you reflect
on the significance and meaning of your baptism?
In your baptism, it’s as if Jesus is saying to you if you are a believer, I’ve washed
you clean from your sin.
I’ve renewed you by the Spirit.
You are united to me in my death and resurrection.
Live your life in the light of that.
Walk in newness of life.
Watch yourself dead unto sin and alive unto righteousness.
Again, this reflects the teaching of Romans, chapter 6, and other passages of Scripture.
I want to think about the Lord’s Supper.
This is one of the reasons why the Lord’s Supper is so important.
Now it’s possible to make too much of the Lord’s Supper and to exalt the Supper above
the word that has been done historically by some communions within Christendom such
as the Roman Catholic Church.
In a Roman Catholic sanctuary, what is the typical piece of item that is front and center
in a Roman Catholic sanctuary?
It’s the altar, right?
The podium where the priest preaches his homily is usually off to the side.
The altar is front and center, but in Reformed churches the pulpit is front and center, symbolizing
the fact that the word of God is central to the life of the people of God.
And yet, that does not mean that the Lord’s Supper is unimportant.
Jesus appointed the Lord’s Supper on the night in which he was betrayed.
He calls us to do this in remembrance of me, and he calls us to do it frequently.
We get the impression from the Book of Acts, and this is not a time to preach on the frequency
of how often we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but we get the impression from the
Book of Acts that they celebrated it pretty regularly, perhaps even each and every Lord’s
Day.
That doesn’t mean that we have to necessarily do the same thing.
But brothers and sisters, it’s important, because in the Lord’s Supper the gospel is
preached in symbol form, and what this teaches us is that even we who have professed faith,
we need to hear the gospel over and over and over again, because we are so forgetful.
It’s so easy for us to forget that our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Christ alone, apart from works.
And that wonderful gospel is so wonderfully embodied in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
And of course we remind ourselves of the Lord’s goodness to us through prayer and praise.
So I would urge you, diligently use the means of grace, the public means of grace that are
entrusted by Christ to his church, but also use the means of grace in private, through
your private devotions and family devotions.
I would also suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that one way to refresh your memory
with the truths and virtues that you are called to as God’s people is to memorize a good Bible-based
catechism.
I’d like to suggest the shorter catechism, that’s a pretty good catechism in terms of
summarizing Bible truth.
And by the way, I know some folks, some evangelicals are very nervous about catechism because they
think catechism is a Catholic thing, but in fact, brothers and sisters, the Protestant
Reformation produced an explosion of catechesis.
The Protestant Reformers and their followers produced numerous Bible-based catechisms and
confessional statements to summarize the Bible’s teachings and to aid in the passing along
of the faith to future generations.
And so, brothers and sisters, let us always call to mind these truths that are revealed
in the Word of God.
But that brings me to my next point, and we’re going to focus next on verse 13.
We learn in this verse about the temporal nature of this present life.
I’ve been speaking just a few moments ago about how catechesis, catechism memorization
and the diligent use of the means of grace is one way to pass the faith on to future
generations.
And that is Peter’s concern here.
He knows that his time on this earth is coming to an end, but he’s concerned for future generations.
And he reflects in verse 13 on the temporal nature of this present life.
He says in verse 13, I think it right as long as I’m in this body to stir you up by way
of reminder.
As long as I’m in this body.
Now in the Greek, it literally means in this tent.
The New International Version, for example, translates it as the tent of this body.
Now think about a tent.
Would you like to live in a tent?
I know some of the folks in the Bible, some of the patriarchs, were tent dwellers.
They were nomads.
But today we typically live in homes.
And a tent, of course, is a temporary, is usually a temporary dwelling place as opposed
to a building such as a home, which is intended to be more permanent.
In using this kind of language and imagery, the apostle Peter is seeking to underscore
the temporary nature of our earthly existence.
He’s aware of that himself because the Lord Jesus has revealed to him that he will soon
depart.
He will soon put off the tent of his body and depart this present earthly scene.
But all of us should reflect upon the temporary nature of our lives.
You know, when we’re younger, we think life is so long.
But then as time goes on and we get older, we realize just how fleeting and just how
temporary this present life is.
I’m reminded of an old Steve Camp song.
Steve Camp was a Christian artist.
I think he was popular back more in the 80s and 90s.
But as a young person, I used to listen to his music.
And he has a song entitled, Judgment Begins in the House of God.
And that song includes the following line.
Mr. Camp writes, Oh, this world is not my home.
I’m just passing through.
Sometimes you’ll stand alone to live a life that’s true.
And that is true.
This world is not our ultimate home.
This is not where our permanent citizenship is.
I’m reminded of what the apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3 verses 17 to 21.
I’d invite you to turn there, Philippians chapter 3 verses 17 through 21.
Paul writes this, Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according
to the example you have in us.
For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies
of the cross of Christ.
Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with
minds set on earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables
him even to subject all things to himself.
Beloved, our ultimate citizenship is in heaven.
If you are in Christ, that’s where your ultimate citizenship is.
It’s in heaven.
Yes, this world is significant, it’s important, and we are to live our lives for the glory
of God.
We are to live fully in this present life for the glory of God.
But we are to live our lives in this present life in light of eternity with our eyes fixed
upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Dear listener, is your ultimate citizenship in heaven, or do you live as an enemy of the
cross of Christ?
It is only as you are in Christ, resting in him alone for your salvation from sin, that
you can be assured that your citizenship is in heaven.
So rest in Christ, who is crucified for the forgiveness of sins and raised from the dead,
that we might have eternal life.
Rest in Christ for your salvation from sin and your citizenship.
You can be assured then that your citizenship is in heaven.
Peter also reflects this truth back in his first epistle, in the very first verse of
1 Peter 1, where he says, he writes that epistle to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion
in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, and so forth.
We believers are strangers in this present life.
We are elect, exiles of the dispersion.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in terms of our practical, everyday living, do we live
our lives as if this present life were all that there is, and all that mattered?
As if this present life and setting were our permanent home?
Or by the grace of God, are we living as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, as those who are
making our pilgrimage through this present age to our ultimate homeland of heaven?
Is your approach to life worldly minded or heavenly minded?
And this brings me to the final point as we reflect on verse 15 of our passage for tonight.
Consider finally the importance of concern for future generations of Christians.
The importance of concern for future generations of Christians.
One of the greatest joys that a pastor has is seeing covenant children grow up and own
the faith in which they were raised.
Grow up to the point where they profess their faith and then they become adults and they
continue walking in the faith.
Some covenant children have a more circuitous route.
Some grow up and they turn away for a time and then come back.
Sadly, some grow up and leave the faith.
That is a great tragedy when that happens.
But brothers and sisters in Christ, especially for those of us who are past the midpoint
of our lives, as we look back and we see the younger generation rising up, we find ourselves
concerned for future generations and we should.
Peter too shares this concern.
The apostle is concerned about the future of God’s people and we should be as well.
Peter writes, verse 15 he says, I will make every effort so that after my departure, literally
in the Greek it’s after my exodus, the exodus was the departure of the people of God from
Egypt to make their journey to the promised land and obviously he’s using this terminology
to describe his death, his physical death.
He says I will make every effort so that after my departure, after my death in other words,
you may be able at any time to recall these things.
What is included in the every effort that Peter intends to make?
Now here Peter may simply be referring to his ongoing apostolic efforts of preaching
and teaching to ground them in the truth of God while he remains with them.
And perhaps this epistle itself is just one evidence of that apostolic effort on Peter’s
part.
Some scholars believe that Peter may have in mind here what is today the contents of
the Gospel of Mark.
You see friends, according to early Christian testimony by early church fathers such as
Papias, John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, was a disciple of the apostle Peter.
And so there’s a general scholarly consensus that the Gospel of Mark is actually a summary
of Peter’s apostolic preaching of the Gospel.
Why is it that Mark’s Gospel, though it was not written by an apostle, was accepted into
the canon of scripture, was recognized as part of holy scripture?
Well one of the reasons for that is that the early church recognized apostolic content.
Though Mark himself was not an apostle, his gospel represents, according to church testimony,
the testimony of the early church fathers, the contents of his gospel was a summary
of Peter’s preaching of the gospel.
And perhaps that’s what Peter has in mind when he says I’ll make every effort.
Perhaps Peter is here thinking, well I’m going to make sure that my teachings are written
down in gospel form.
That is indeed a possibility, though again it’s somewhat speculative to suggest that.
But either way, Peter, we can be sure, was faithful to his intention to make every effort
so that after his death, his departure, his exodus from this life, the people of God may
be able at any time to recall these things.
And one of the fruits of his efforts, again, was this very epistle that we have been studying
brothers and sisters.
Dear ones, let us remember that we serve a multi-generational God.
Indeed we serve an eternal God, a God who transcends the generations of humanity.
A God who promises in the covenant of grace to be God to us and to our children after us.
Let us therefore, brothers and sisters, think multi-generationally and let us strive to
leave behind a heritage of faith so that should our Lord continue to tarry, should our Lord
tarry, that future generations too will have the faith once for all delivered to the saints,
delivered to them, passed on to them, that they too might pass it on to future generations
until our Lord returns in glory.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we are creatures who struggle to remember the things
that matter most.
We are so forgetful, Lord.
Lord, you call us in your word not to forget you, not to forget your wondrous works of
salvation, not to forget your holy commandments.
Lord, we ask you to grant us the grace of Christian memory that we might grow in the
knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus Christ and that we might live out our daily lives
as faithful disciples, faithful followers of Jesus, out of gratitude for your amazing
gift of salvation given to us in Christ our Lord.
It is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen.