Let's pray once again as we come to God's word. Father in heaven we pray before sermons not simply out of habit or custom but out of need. I need you if I'm to preach clearly humbly with authority, truthfully, from your word and your dear people need your help, a fair to have years to listen, to pay attention, to hear from you in this late hour. And so we ask for your strength and your grace that you would do a mighty work in our midst through your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We've been going through this fall a series in Genesis in the morning and second Peter in the evening and tonight we come to second Peter chapter 1 verses 12 through 15. On September 19, 1796, George Washington's farewell address to the nation was published in the leading newspapers. I actually didn't say with a title his farewell address but that's what it's become known to us. And fittingly so for it was Washington's announcement that he would not be seeking a third term in the presidency. There was no amendment to prohibit it and he certainly would have won if he wanted to run again. He actually had a draft of his farewell address written before the end of his first term when he wanted to end but he went to second term. Madison drafted an initial copy of the address in Hamilton later helped edit it. For some time in American history the farewell address of Washington was right up there with the Declaration of Independence as one of the key founding documents. It's since gone out of circulation largely although the Hamilton musical perhaps reignited some interest in it. Actually a little bit of interest from history in initial copies of the address Washington let much more of his hurt feelings come through and took pot shots at some of the people that had been against him and Hamilton wisely excised some of those parts and said no no no I think you're just going to going to be magnanimous and sort of speak into posterity and that served him well. After 45 years of public service Washington was approaching the end of his second term deciding not to run for a third term elections would be coming soon and he also imagined he was near the end of his life and he was. He would die a few years later in 1799 in this address which is still read on the Senate floor every February 22nd Washington warns against foreign entanglements against party faction and then he called his countrymen to virtue here's one of those paragraphs. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations cultivate peace and harmony with all religion and morality and join this conduct and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoy it it will be worthy of a free enlightened and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and to novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruit of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages that might be lost by a steady adherence to it can it be that providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue the experiment at least is recommended by every sentiment which in nobles human nature alas it is rendered impossible by its vices there's Washington calling his fellow citizens that if this experiment in self-rule is to continue it must adhere to virtue less to be ruined by the cultivation of vice those were some of Washington's last words as he wanted to retire to private life at Mount Vernon what would you want to say perhaps not to the nation nation may not care what you were I have to say but to your church certainly to your family or friends what would you say if you knew the end of your life was near what final words would you want to leave with your loved ones what would you think was most necessary to communicate what would a farewell address from you to your people sound like that's exactly what we have here in Peter's letter and we see it clearly in these few verses follow along as I read verse 12 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 writes 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 Peter's about to die he knows he says the putting off of my body will come soon the word is literally tense in verses 13 and 14 you can see that down in footnote think of a tent some of you are of that just strange breed it seems to me who like to spend your vacation time in tents a tent is temporary weak destructible what do you do with the tent you pitch a tent and then you pack it up you do not expect to live a whole life in your tent certainly not in one place so this is common biblical imagery for putting off the body ultimately our hope as Christians is the resurrection of the body but there is an intermediate state where we are separated from the body still enjoying paradise in heaven but awaiting the final resurrection so death is sometimes described as putting aside the tent Paul says in second Corinthians 5 where we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens the contrast there is heaven is secure it's an eternal dwelling it's a strong building it's reinforced concrete it's foundations go deep into the earth it's not going anywhere our body is a tent doesn't mean the body is bad the body is good and we will receive new resurrected bodies but these present earthly bodies are only temporary actually it's a good reminder as we get older and all of us get older some of us can figure where still have the best years ahead of us or figure where in the middle or have quite a good indication that we are on the back nine of our golf course it's good to remember when our bodies get older when they decay when they eventually die we're not losing our inheritance we're not losing our palace we're packing up our tent the palace is in heaven the eternal inheritance is in heaven we have a tent and it will serve us well for as long as the Lord gives us life but as the tent begins to wear out and need more patchwork and need more trips into the office to have help need more pills and procedures to keep the tent going just remember you're not putting off your palace you're putting off your tent wasn't meant to last forever Peter knows he's going to die how does he know he's going to die he's probably in his fifties or sixties at a time when the average lifespan would have been much much lower than that so he can just look around him and see that he's much older than most everyone else plus it's quite possible the persecutions under Nero had begun remember Nero blamed the great fire of Rome on the Christians in 64 AD those scholars think were somewhere in that time period the knowledge of imminent death was in keeping with what the Lord Jesus Christ had made clear you see in verse 14 I know that the putting off of my body will be soon as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me now perhaps he's referencing some special revelation from the Lord or he could simply be talking about John 21 before Jesus ascends into heaven remember he tells Peter when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you are old you will stretch out your hands another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go and John tells us he said this to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God so Peter had been given a special word from the Lord Jesus and if he understood it correctly he knew that he was going to die a martyr's death he would be carried where he did not want to go so Peter has a certain understanding that he's about to die what would you want to say to your fellow believers if you knew that the time was coming to an end there's a book that I have it's quite a good book it's about preaching and it was written by a scholar who thought that his cancer was bringing him to the end of his life and so he wanted to write one last book to tell people that preaching was awful and it's actually a good book with some good reminders sometimes wonder what what would I want to say if I knew the time was coming whenever I get just a sniffle because wives you know what your husbands are like when they get just a little sick you know I'll just have the slightest cold or fever and I start telling Trisha what to do with my library when I'm gone just make sure someone takes care of the books that's my concern what would you say if you knew your time was coming to an end what would your last words be your farewell address good luck do your best I did it my way well if we are living our lives right and we have been faithful then actually the last thing that you will say should be nothing new the last thing you should say should be a reminder of all the things that you've already been saying do you see this in Peter's words look at how often he speaks of reminders verse 12 therefore I intend always to remind you verse 13 as long as him in this body I'm going to stir you up by way of reminder verse 15 I will make every effort so after my departure you may be able to any time to recall to remember these things so three times he says in this farewell discourse all I want to do is remind you of things what things we read in verse 12 these qualities or literally these things these things in verse 12 probably refer to the same these things mentioned earlier namely the qualities of Godliness look up at verse 8 for if these qualities there it's translated the same it's the same Greek if these qualities these things are yours and in later in verse 12 I intend to always remind you of these things or these qualities so he's reminding them of this call to godliness and more than that this whole letter is meant to remind Peter's audience of what they need to know and as we'll see in the weeks ahead their need for holiness he wants to remind them about the inspiration of the scriptures the reality of judgment danger of false teaching the return of the Lord Jesus all of these are connected to Peter's exhortation to godly living look at chapter 3 this is now the second letter that I'm writing to you beloved and both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the command of the Lord and Savior through your apostles so again we see the language remember I'm reminding you I'm reminding of the predictions of the holy prophets the prediction of Christ first advent the promise of his second advent he's reminding them of Christ coming again which is one of the main motivations for holiness the commandment of their Lord and Savior through the apostles so they would be pure self-controlled blameless they would not deviate from what they have been taught that's what Peter is seeking to remind him of Peter knows he has nothing new to say to them now one hand you may say well that's sort of discouraging but really isn't that the way it ought to be you wouldn't want to be at the end of your life and suddenly think oh there's something I've been meaning to say my whole life some people have to live with that profound sense of regret why didn't I ever say these things or hopefully when becoming to some new insight that now is reshaping your whole life when you're about to breathe your last ideally when you get to the end of your life you're able to say to your loved ones remember what my life has been about remember what I said to you verse 12 I intend to remind you though you know them and are established in the truth that you have established in the truth this is one of the things that separates theological liberalism from whatever you want to call it conservative evangelicalism Bible believing in air and sea not speaking politically speaking about theological liberalism would find much that is helpful in the Bible and they might say there's truth here that we cannot finally put into words and all of our speaking of truth is but a feeble human attempt to describe an ineffable god and our experience from him it's a kernel and there's a husk in an every generation you have to remove the husk and then there's the kernel of truth or as Rob Bell said years ago it's like bouncing on a trampoline and you have the springs but you need to repaint this velvet Elvis as time goes on fears is something different he says you're firm you're anchored you're rooted you're established we believe god has spoken there is a deposit of understandable transferable truth that must be protected and preserved now yes there's more to being a Christian than that but brothers and sisters and especially here I'm thinking of those have all these young people here engaged in ministry it is not less than that that you are to help young believers become established firmly grounded in the truth we may say your whole life may be an adventure your theology should not be an adventure you may move and you may have multiple careers and you may go here and there and you may have all sorts of grand ideas and you may change the world but god's word does not change to be established in the truth means we've heard it we've believed it we've accepted it now the task is to be shaped by it not to deviate from it it is so easy to lose the truth new ideas come along we get lazy with our doctrinal borders or boundaries think about it it is almost invariably the natural drift is away from orthodoxy let if you do nothing in your church in your denomination in your school in your ministry if you do nothing the drift will be away from orthodoxy why because it's it's always harder to say no to people than to say yes it's always harder to say no we need to draw some boundaries here we need to draw some lines here that it is to say come on let no no that we can embrace that we can embrace that new teaching especially in our day what what word sounds better what word would you rather be called inclusive exclusive open closed there you go on and on of course there's a way in which you can wrongly be exclusive you can wrongly be closed but if we are to be firmly established in the truth as god words tells us to be then it must be that there are certain non-negotiable truths this apostolic deposits it's always easier to say sure we can let that slide or we get lazy with our holiness if you go through your life each day thinking that holiness will come automatically you'll wake up a week from now a month from now 10 years from now and you will be in a very different place isn't it instructive that Jesus taught his disciples to pray for our daily bread and then I think that sense of rhythm extends to all the other petitions also asking daily lead us not into temptation when is the last time you've prayed Lord lead me not into temptation which I could say I pray that every single day I don't every single day but I do often many many days because I don't trust myself and I need the Lord's grace less I slip less I no longer keep a close watch on my life and my doctrine sometimes we slip simply because we forget our memory fades sharpness gets dull think about in Peter's day how many people had a Bible in their home no one these things were not written down they were in some very beginning scrolls or codices and perhaps a community would have one or a church would have one but you didn't have these things in people's homes they didn't have creeds and confessions to consult like we did do no tried and true systematic theology to say well let's take Calvin or boving off the shelf and see what they have to say about this what did they have they had their memories and most of them couldn't read or write they had to rely on reminders so there's a reason Peter is saying you must remember you absolutely cannot forget what I have told you and though we're literate people and we have books galore and we have unbelievable amounts of information in our pockets we too need to be stirred up to reminder we may have books and plenty of history and information and multiple bibles laying around
but with that comes sometimes too much information and our danger is too much input and we forget the things we ought to remember and the things that we ought to forget stick with us constantly bombarded by new images new ideas new information a thousand times a day if you don't think that you need to be reminded of the truth then you are likely very close to forgetting it if you don't think that there is a war for your souls and it may not come in the form of very obvious deception it's not deceiving if it's obvious may not be that the the message on your phone or the YouTube video that comes up says Satan worship oh that's interesting which is not going to be that maybe a thousand other things or it just may be the infinite distractibility of your soul the only thing more difficult than finding the truth may be not losing it what starts out as new and precious becomes plain and old it's one of the things I love about having campus ministry around and having college students around there's a freshness there's an there's an energy there's an excitement of people learning things and seeing things for the first time for some of us you would look back and you would think you know when I was most on fire for Jesus when I was 22 years old in a way okay it's a unique time lots of unique circumstances and situations but for some of us there's a danger of coasting on those fumes from the past and it's been a long time since we were excited about something in Jesus a long time since we found something to energize us and I grant it's more difficult when everything is new and fresh and now many of you are in the season of 1 Peter 2 12 through 15 reminders reminders remember why is it that denominations or churches or movements often drift from their theological moorings why is it that too often those people who grow up with the creeds and the great confessions and catechisms are the ones who end up despising them most oh another another hydroburg catechism another Westminster shorter catechism yon yon perhaps it's because the truth is like the tip of your nose and it's hardest to see when it's right in front of you no doubt the church in the western world has new things to grapple with new things to learn but for the most part everything we need to learn is what we've already forgotten the chief theological task facing the American church is not so much to reinvent to be relevant but to remember remember the old old story remember the faith once delivered to the saint remember the truths that in days past has sparked reformation and revival and can do so again look you're here on Sunday evening the Lord bless you may your tribe increase one of the reasons you come back on Sunday evening no doubt good habit perhaps but you realize you need to be reminded now hopefully this preacher doesn't just have the same sermon in the same way with the same illustration Sunday after Sunday that's boring but there are also preachers who get bored saying the same truth and so they go after new ones and that's a bigger mistake some of you have been at this church since the beginning through a number of different pastors and you could certainly testify that I'm not the same man as Harry Reader or Mike Ross or the other men who have pastored here but I think we can say with confidence that the same gospel truth is proclaimed here in 2020 as it was in 2010 and 1990 and when the church started in the early eighties and by God's grace the same truth will be proclaimed in 2050 or 2500 if the Lord Terry's there will be new people who will need to hear it and if any of us are around in 2050 then we will need another reminder even then we will need to be reminded the scriptures are true Jesus is God we are forgiven at the cross we are justified by faith we show our faith in good deeds and holy lives we share our faith with others we pray we read the Bible we believe Jesus is coming again to judge the living in the dead we believe that hell is real and terrible and heaven is better than we can imagine and we believe that God is all in all you cannot hear those things too many times who knows on which Sunday which of you may have your faith leaking and need to be reminded of the old old story yes it's true don't neglect when you're with your friends and family in moments of suffering and you think I don't know what to say don't neglect to tell them the things they already know and need to remember again and again and again and often it's not the the most esoteric truths sometimes the simplest truths which are the most profound Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so if you could really go through your whole life every day believing in your head and in your heart Jesus loves me and the Bible is true will you be well on your way to a life of faithfulness we cannot be reminded of these things too many times maybe some of you have come across Greg Gilbert's book what is the gospel Greg's a friend of mine and it's a very good book one reviewer said quote Greg Gilbert has absolutely nothing new to propose about the good news Greg wasn't sure if it was a put down but he took it as a great compliment sort of like that famous line from Charles Hodg who said that he never wanted to see a new idea come out of old Princeton let me leave you with two concluding thoughts first the best way to leave a legacy in your ministry for your children for your friends in your church the best way to leave a legacy is to promote the truth the truth will outlast us all we have no guarantee what the Lord will do with the Presbyterian church in America what he will do with campus outreach I don't know promise even what he will do with his particular lampstand at Christ covenant what we do have as a promise from the Lord Jesus himself that he will build his church in the gates of hell will not prevail against it the pillar and foundation of the truth will outlast us all do you see verse 15 verse 15 should be a great encouragement for those of you who are in the last laps of your life and it should be a great reorienting of our priorities if you're in the first laps of your life and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things that's his concern I'm going to die and when I'm gone I want you to remember what I said if we're honest we want to be remembered ourselves too we hope that people remember some funny stories about us or some active kindness and that's that's appropriate but the rather sober thought is that after just a generation or two from everyone in this room likely our life will be summed up with a date of birth and a date of death and then a line in the middle and we will be largely forgotten you know it will not be forgotten the truth little may be known about our lives but the church will continue if you want to leave a legacy certainly there is good reason to have all sorts of careers in this world and yours may be in sports or politics or entertainment or education or manufacturing or business or banking and all can be done to the glory of God listen though if you want to leave a legacy that outlasts you be sure to give people eternal truth the truth will outlast us all speak the truth and you will not be without a legacy and here's the second concluding thought and it goes back to the opening question if you knew that the end of your life was drawing near what words would you want to say for some of you may seem like that's coming soon and for others that's hard to imagine distant it feels but if you knew it was right around the corner what words would you want people to hear from your lips I love you Jesus loves you the Bible is true what would you want people to hear in your farewell address and if you have some clarity in your mind of that farewell address here's the final thought what are you doing to speak those things now don't wait until the end we may not be given like Peter some supernatural sense that our time is coming to an end we may not have the opportunity like George Washington and have James Madison and Alexander Hamilton write a farewell address and publish it in the papers and then retire to mountain Vernon we don't know when the time will come people say live every day as if it were your last it's a little unrealistic you'd quit your job you'd gain a bazillion pounds and just eat whatever you wanted it was my last day so that's not really practical you can't just quit your job and pick out but we can get into habit of reminding each other of the things that will outlast us if you are entering the last lap of your life the last few holes on the golf course of living what would you say and are you saying those things now a life of reminders is nothing to be ashamed of and if you are living your life right now and speaking what a Christian ought to speak now then you can be assured that when you get to the end of your life all you'll need to say to your loved ones is remember what I've already told you let's pray gracious father we thank you for this privilege that is ours to speak your word to study it to learn from it to grow in it to each of us and whatever sphere we have public or private be faithful and for some it will mean learning things for the first time teaching others for the first time but as we grow on an end we mature it will be a ministry of remembering give us the right heads O Lord to forget our sins and to remember your word we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen