Reminder to Remember What You Know

Transcript

GR1959
07/10/2016
Reminder to Remember What You Know
II Peter 1:12-15
Gil Rugh

We are going to 2 Peter in your Bibles, 2 Peter chapter 1. It is amazing, the grace of God as He used Peter as an instrument directed by the Holy Spirit to write this letter. Think about it. Down through 2,000 years of church history God has graciously preserved this letter intact so that we who would read it, study it, learn from it have the Word of God in our own possession. How gracious God has been.

I enjoy from time to time reading something of what has happened in history (the trials and difficulties that people have gone through) as a reminder that basically nothing changes since something of the situation of New Testament times.

The book that I would recommend to you if you haven’t read it is a book entitled “Holiness” by J. C. Ryle, John Charles Ryle. It is, I don’t know, a book, I didn’t check how many pages, could be 300+ but I think there is also an abbreviated version and they are available at Sound Words. But he wrote this book “Holiness” which is a very fine work basically on the Biblical doctrine of sanctification as we walked about. John Charles Ryle wrote it in 1879. I want to read you some excerpts from it.

I want to tell you something about reading. Sometimes it depends on whether you love to read or it is a chore but you know, you don’t have to take a 300 page book and say, “Oh my, I will never get through this.” You know, if you read 10 pages a day you will be through it in a month and if you did that you would go through a dozen books of that size in a year. So you don’t have to look at it and say, “Boy, I’ve got all this to do.” You say, “Well, I have 5, 6, 10 pages I am going to read today and I will put a marker in it and pick it up tomorrow.” So I encourage you in your reading.

But let me share with you what John Ryle wrote in 1879. “There is much in the attitude of professing Christians in this day which fills me with concern and makes me full of fear for the future. There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many and a consequent want of established solid religion. In no other way can I account for the case with which people ‘are like children tossed and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. There is an affinian love of novelty abroad and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular and in the beaten path of our fore fathers. Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true. There is an incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational and exciting and rousing to the feelings.”

And I am not reading consequently so I am just skipping sections. “Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide and so long as the preacher is clever and earnest hundreds seem to think it must be alright and call you dreadfully narrow and uncharitable if you hint that it is unsound. The times require at our hands distinct and decided views of Christian doctrine. I cannot withhold my conviction that the professing church of the 19th century is as much damaged by laxity and indistinction about matters of doctrine within and as it by the skeptics and unbelievers without. Myriads of professing Christians now a days seem utterly unable to distinguish things that differ like people afflicted with color blindness. They are incapable of discerning what is true, what is false, what is sound, what is unsound. They are destitute of spiritual sense, apparently, they cannot detect error. These people live in a kind of mist or fog. They are eaten up with a morbid dread of controversy and an ignorant dislike of party spirit and yet they really define what they mean by these phrases. The explanation of this boneless, nerveless jelly-fish condition of soul is not difficult to find. Above all the natural heart generally likes the praise of others, shrinks from collision and loves to be thought charitable and liberal. For your own souls sake dare to make up your mind what you believe and dare to have positive distinct views of truth and error. Never, never be afraid to hold decided doctrinal opinions and let no fear of man and no morbid dread of being thought party spirited, narrow, or controversial make you rest contended with a bloodless, bondless, tasteless, colorless, lukewarm undogmatic Christianity.”

“Mark what I say. If you want to do good in these times you must throw aside indecision, take a distinct, sharply cut doctrinal religion. If you believe little those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing. The victories of Christianity wherever they have been won have been won by distinct doctrinal theology. But depend upon it. If we want to do good and shape the world we must fight with the old apostolic weapons and stick to dogma. No dogma, no fruit. No positive evangelical doctrine, no evangelization. The times require of us awakened and livelier sense of the unscriptural and soul ruining character of Romanism (Roman Catholicism).

There is no longer that general dislike, dread and aversion to potpourri which was once almost universal in this realm. Some profess to be tired of all religious controversy and are ready to sacrifice God’s truth for the sake of peace. Some try to persuade us that Romanism has changed and is not nearly so bad as it used to be.” And on he goes. It is just a reminder over a 100 years have gone by since he wrote that but basically we battle the same battles, face the same issues and struggle with the same matters.

This is what Peter is writing about. At the beginning when God gave this revelation this is Peter’s concern. He says he is committed to be reminding as long as he is alive, reminding the churches of these sound Biblical truths. Why is he doing that? From the very beginning the devil’s plan and purpose has been to move God’s people away from the truth.

So we come to 2 Peter chapter 1. We are going to look beginning in verse 12 and this contains a strong emphasis on remembering and reminding. Peter will be reminding them so they remember. As we have often talked about, like your kids. You tell them, you tell them what they already know. You remind them of what you have told them because you want it to be so fixed in their mind that they will not be moved away from these important things.

God’s plan, the reason He gave His Word is He intends for His people to be focused on His Word. That is what we are about. Nothing new, nothing less, nothing else, God’s truth.

So look at verse 12. Peter says, “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder.” This is a burden and he goes on to say as we will see, Christ has made clear to him, his death is near. Peter will soon face execution but he is not discouraged. He is not fearful. He is determined that the people who will be here after his departure must be faithful with this truth and by the grace of God you and I have the truth of this letter because there will be faithful people that have passed it along and have been faithful to it.

“Therefore,” what he is going to say builds upon what he has said in verse 3-11 of chapter 1. You know “God’s power granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness,” in verse 3. We have escaped the corruption in the world because God has made us partakers of His divine nature. Now we are to be growing in these qualities of character to be more like Christ. “Have these qualities flourishing (if you will) in our lives,” so people see us as manifesting the very character of God. “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things.”

He is not looking for particularly something new but the foundational truths must be fixed firmly in us. We talked about this earlier today and the danger with the church moving away from a clear doctrinal understanding of the Biblical teaching on the doctrine of sanctification and the confusion that brings and it begins to undermine the truth and a generation that is raised with that, where will they go with it? And so the departure.

J. C. Ryle ministered in England, contemporary with much of his ministry with Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Joseph Parker, in London, Alexander McClair, great preaching. Now almost no one even goes to church of any kind in England. What do they say, 5% of the population goes to a church of any kind and they figure within the not too distant future that will be down to 2%? The fears of Ryle have been realized over time. You end up with nothing, emptiness.

So Peter says, “I will always be ready to remind you of these things.” Remind, this is the constant on-going thing. He wants that to be fixed in their mind. They won’t lose their grasp on it. Over in chapter 3 he will return to that emphasis in this letter. “This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember.” Remember it is the Spirit of God directing him. God doesn’t repeat Himself because He has run out of things to say but there are truths that are repeated again and again because we have to have a grasp on them. So he is going to remind you of these things. Back in chapter 1, verse 12: “Even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you.” Peter wants them to know, I know I am not telling you anything you don’t already know, that you already are not settled in. I am going to remind you even though you already know them, that perfect tense. You know they learned it in the past and they have continued to carry that knowledge but I am still going to remind you is the point.

You not only know it, you have been established in the truth. They have firmness; they have a stability in their faith. Peter is not doing this, he is not questioning their stability in the faith. “You are and have been established in the truth.” This is God’s work in their lives.

Turn back a page or so to I Peter chapter 5, verse 10: “After you have suffered for a little while the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you.” You know we are never done being more firmly established, getting stronger, more settled. You know the danger we have as time goes by and we study a lot of the Word we think, you think, I think I have a pretty good handle on the Word. That is a dangerous way to begin to think. I am not saying we don’t look and appreciate what we have learned and where we have come but that doesn’t mean we are done. We are never done and without that constant input and going over and over again pretty soon it gets fuzzy. Yes, I know I studied that. I can’t quite remember how it all goes together. Well if I can’t remember quite how it goes together, how am I going to recognize when somebody is not putting it together properly. So we are in that situation, I need to be reminded.

You know I like to read and I like to mark the books I read and sometimes I will go back and read books that I marked and I will say, “Man, I forgot that was there.” I am sometimes reading portions of the Old Testament and say, “Boy, I didn’t remember it was said like that.” I need to be constantly reminded. This is the same word that Christ said, this word ‘established’ in verse 12 of 2 Peter 1: “You have been established in the truth.” Remember Christ told Peter after he’s restored from his denials that he would do, Christ said, “You will deny me. When you are restored you are to establish your brethren.” So his failure will be a learning experience for him and what Peter will realize how important it is. He thought he was unshakeable. If everybody deserts you, not me Lord. You will deny me three times and after you are restored you establish your brethren. Peter learned a hard lesson through that.

You are “established in the truths which is present with you.” Jude refers to it as “the faith once for all handed down to the saints.” God’s truth, it is present with you; the truth of the Gospel, the truth that God has made known. Remember Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth, Your Word is truth.” That is foundational. The truth is a constant way of referring to the Word of God. What the problem with the world is, they are adrift. They have no unchanging standard. They are carried about by whatever is current no matter how silly, no matter how vile, no matter how foolish. Well how is anybody going to say, “This is right, this is wrong?” We have truth. This is truth.

Look at a few passages with me. Galatians chapter 2 and this is in the context and Peter will get into this particularly in chapter 2 with false teachers who infiltrate among believers. In verse 4 of Galatians 2: “It was because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage. We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour.” Note this, “So that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you.”

So key, if he had yielded on this and compromised the truth for peace how would the truth of the Gospel got passed on? It would have been a corrupted message that would have gotten passed on.

Look down in verse 14: “But when I saw they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel.” And this is Barnabas and Peter that have to be rebuked here. Men that God has greatly used but that doesn’t mean that they can promote error. Well, you know, I know Barnabas. He’s a good man and Peter of course; he’s been uniquely used of God. That is great but that doesn’t mean you are allowed to be loose with the truth and we need to remember that because sometimes we say they are good people. I know they mean well. That’s fine but we don’t yield an inch on the truth.

Verse 14: “When I saw that they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel I said to Cephas in the presence of them all.” And he goes on to say. You know the amazing thing? He did it publically and then he puts it in a letter and it has been preserved for 2,000 years. You almost feel like saying, “Poor Peter. You now all his stumbles get put in the eternal Word of God.” But you know it is important to understand. Even Peter isn’t given a pass when it comes to the truth because this is God’s truth to be taught and to be practiced and when he failed on the practice side, he was denying the reality of the truth that he did proclaim. It’s truth.

Chapter 5 of Galatians, verse 7 talking to the Galatian churches: “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” The Galatian churches had started out so well, so strong but their obedience to the truth has wavered, weakened. They have become accepting of teaching that is contrary to the truth. You have to understand. This is objective, fixed truth. It doesn’t mean there aren’t fixed passages we are struggling to understand more clearly but this is truth. It was given to be understood. This is where we start. “What says the Scripture?” We will not yield on that point. That is what he says. “What are you doing? You were running so well who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.” This is not a result of God working in your life. This is a result of you rebelling against what God intends to do in your life; strong material.

Turn over to Ephesians after Galatians, chapter 1, verse 13: “In Him you also after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation having also believed.” We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. It is the truth. It is the truth. It is the truth. What do we carry to the lost, the truth of the Gospel which has been built into the lives of God’s people, the truth of His Word.

Come over to 2 Thessalonians. Stop at Colossians, might as well as we are on the way. Just before Thessalonians, Colossians chapter 1, verse 5 and he is giving thanks to God, praying for them. He has heard of their faith, the love which they had for the saints, verse 5: “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the Gospel which is come to you just as in all the world. Also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth”, truth, truth. That antagonizes the world to say that we have the truth. This you must believe. This is the authoritative Word of God. The world does not believe that. Most people who profess to be Christians using the word in a broad sense and have no concept of bowing in submissiveness to the truth of God for salvation and then for direction in their daily walk.

Come over to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 12. He is talking about when God will send a deluding influence in the coming seven year tribulation. “In order that all may be judged (note this) who did not believe the truth.” And if they don’t believe the truth they take pleasure in wickedness. Why do we see what is breaking out in the world, the result of rejection of truth. “They take pleasure in wickedness but we should always give thanks for you brethren, beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

You come over to I Timothy chapter 3, verse 15: “I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

I thank God that I was privileged to be taught and prepared under godly men who had an unshakeable commitment to truth although sadly the seminary I went to, that wavered some years after I left and resulted in the departure of that school but when I came to Lincoln I came with one intense passion. I will teach the truth. That is what will be my ministry. That is what God has called me to do. I will teach the truth. By God’s grace we will have a local church that is a pillar and support of the truth. Whatever else may be said about us we want people to say if you want serious Bible teaching that is the place for you. I don’t mean that arrogantly or proudly but that is what we are about. We are here to be a pillar and support of the truth, to proclaim the truth, to defend the truth, to oppose error whether it is popular or not.

Come over to 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15, Paul’s last letter as you are aware. “Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed.” Note this, how do you get God’s approval, “Accurately handling the Word of God.” That is our goal. It is not just my responsibility or a teacher’s responsibility. God has given us His Word to all of us to be taken in. It doesn’t’ mean teachers don’t have a special responsibility and obligation but God didn’t give this Book as a Book for scholars. We are studying Peter. What was Peter when God called him, he was a blue collar worker; he was a fisherman. He wasn’t a professor in one of the elite schools. He wasn’t one of the recognized philosophers. He was doing fishing on the Sea of Galilee and God chose to use him as an instrument and then through him to communicate part of His eternal, unchanging Word. That is an encouragement to us.

You know God didn’t speak in such a way that we can’t understand. I mean give Him credit. He created us with the ability to communicate. Certainly He can communicate in a way that we can understand, accurately handling the Word of truth.

Remember when Paul told the Ephesian elders, “I am free from the blood of all men. I have taught you the whole counsel of God.” The importance of truth.

James chapter 1. We will just keep going. Just after Hebrews, James and just before Peter, if you have a marker there. James chapter 1, verse 18: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the Word of truth.” That is how salvation occurs, people being exposed to the truth of God, the provision of Jesus Christ to be the Savior. That is how we grow as we are nourished on the pure, unadulterated Word of God.

One more passage, 2 John chapter 4 and in 2 John the first verse: “The elder to the chosen lady and her children (and I think he is writing to a church, some think it is a literal lady but I think in the context he is writing to a church) whom I love in the truth; not only I but also all who know the truth. For the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and love. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth,” truth, truth, truth. How does the church get confused? How we do as evangelicals (I use that broad term) lose our way and give talks about the Bible, give practical advice on living, the truth. It is the “Word of God which is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.” And it is the Word of God which “pierces down into the innermost recesses of our being.” Nothing else does that. We need to come back to the Book, the truth and we need to come back to 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 13. Peter is not done. “I consider it right as long as I am in this earthly dwelling to stir you up by way of reminder.” I consider it right. It is my responsibility. It is the thing I must do in being faithful to God “as long as I am in this physical body to stir you up by way of reminder.”

He wants to keep them alert, aware. He doesn’t want that spiritual dullness Ryle talked about. Even that early he is concerned that you know lethargy just makes us insensitive to the truth. You know our minds are gone. We are wandering. We have other things and I am going to stir you up by way of reminder.

Verse 14: “I know that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.” Peter said this is all the more important because Christ has made clear to me, my death is imminent. It could happen at any time. Then you think, “well Peter might be distracted and boy, is his wife still living?” We know he had a wife. You have concerns when you are facing death and things to take care of and Christ told him his death was not going to be a pleasant one.

Come back to John’s Gospel, John’s Gospel chapter 21and Christ addressing Peter. We will just pick up verse 18: “Truly, truly I say to you, ‘when you were younger you used to gird yourself, walk wherever you wish but you grow old and you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.’ Now this he said signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God and when he had spoken this he said, ‘follow me.’”

Now you know Peter is a human being. We are well familiar with Peter’s frailties. And now could loom over you. I am going to die a martyr’s death. It is going to be a death that I would not pick. You know, not like Lord, could I just die in my sleep, maybe a heart attack. I go to bed and I don’t wake up. No, there are going to be men to take you where you would not choose to go. This is the kind of death you are going to experience. In other words it is going to be an execution and Peter is well aware how executions were carried out. The Lord was crucified. A very unpleasant way to die but he is not absorbed with that. The fears have overwhelmed me and the concerns have bogged me down and he is really almost unusable to the Lord because he’s got himself in a puddle.

No, he is going on. If my death is imminent and can occur at any time I have to be reminding you because what is so important is faithfulness to the truth as picked up by the next generation and I want this built into your lives so that after I am gone you will be stalwart for the truth. You will stand for the truth. You will defend the truth. You will be unbending in your faithfulness to the truth. What a statement. How long, how many years since Christ told him this in verse 21 with Peter living with the awareness that his life would come to an unpleasant end and then he’s got here near the end coming back to 2 Peter, Christ made known to him it was now imminent but he keeps going. It’s not all about me and fears. I am going to lay aside my earthly dwelling. I love the way that’s put. “Lay aside my earthly dwelling,” summarizes Peter’s view of death.

He’s living here, back up to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11: “I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts.” I am going home. I am going to lay aside my earthly dwelling.

Biblical doctrine of death. James 2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.” That is what brings about physical death. When a person, their spirit moves out of their body their physical body will be declared physically dead. They have not ceased to exist. They as a person in their very essential being are still alive and conscious and aware. They are spirit beings now. That shouldn’t surprise us. Angels are spirit beings. I am not saying we are going to be angels but I am saying we will be spirit beings living outside our body.

Back up to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 just as a review. This helps keep death in perspective for us as believers. It does not mean there is not sorrow in death. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he said to the Thessalonians, “I don’t want you to grieve as those who have no hope.” He didn’t just say, “I don’t want you to grieve.” We are human. When a loved one is removed by physical death we feel the pain of that separation. That’s not bad but as believers we don’t have a hopelessness in the death of a loved one who is a believer. It is the separation that is temporary. They have not ceased to exist and we think oh, it would have been wonderful if they could have lived to see this, to do that, to be part of this. I don’t think anybody in heaven is saying, “Oh boy, I am missing so much down there. I would have liked to have part of that.” It is just not so. Naturally we may miss them being part of it but it is all tempered by that reality.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 where he says, “We know if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with the dwelling from heaven.” It is a tent, verse 5. “While in this tent,” and what is happening is he is talking about this physical body is subject to pain, subject to suffering and as you get older it can get worse but some of you can experience the difficulties and trials of pain that have come to you early. It is a reality. We are looking forward to the glorified body that we will ultimately have. We will experience no pain or suffering.

So verse 6: “Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight.” The reason I know that is true is I believe what God has said. I need no more proof than that. When God promises something I don’t tell Him, “Well prove it.” I walk by faith. God has told me this is what He is going to do. “We are of good courage I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” Wow, that is the best!

My brother-in-law who went home to be with the Lord, it has been over 20 years ago, but when we were together and he was dying of cancer he said, “Just remember, Gil, when you are down here struggling, I am going to be up there in glory.” I think of that often. I can’t talk to him but I will say, “You know Richard, you were right.” We are looking forward to that, right? That puts death in perspective. Now death is an enemy.

I was reading the sufferings of people who do cruel things to other people. A family of seven children and the mother would not bow to the emperor’s god. They cut out the tongue of the seventh child, put him in a skillet and fried him over the fire and gave the next son, the next son, the next son each opportunity and each went through it until the mother experienced the same thing. What a terrible way to go. You know all I’ve got to do is trust the Lord and draw upon His grace to get through this. You know what? I will be in a glory that will never end. They can’t change that. That’s why Jesus said, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body but can’t destroy the soul but you fear him who after he has killed the body is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” So it puts life in perspective. That is what Peter is saying.

Philippians chapter 1 is another passage. Paul was in his first Roman imprisonment. He said, “I am torn. I have a desire to go and be with Christ but I think there is more ministry for me to carry out for your benefit. But going and being with Christ is very much better.”

Come back to 2 Peter, verse 15: “And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.” I will be diligent, I will be zealous, I will, you know be enthusiastic. It may not be that word but that idea, this is what he is passionate about. He used this word up in verse 5: “Now for this very reason, also applying all diligence, zeal in your faith supply moral excellence” and so on.

In verse 10: “Therefore be all the more diligent, zealous to make certain about his calling. And I am going to be all the more zealous in reminding and to the best of my ability having these truths fixed in your mind.” You know these readers didn’t have the same blessing we have. They didn’t all get a copy of the Scriptures to take with them. Think about that. They didn’t necessarily even have a copy of Peter’s letter for each of them to take home. Here we have the completed Word of God. We take it with us. We probably have multiple copies. We can read it at any time. “I want to be zealous, diligent after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.” That is what we are doing. That is the ministry we have together as a church, right?

We are committed to pour our lives into the study of God’s Word and the sharing of God’s Word and to be faithful to God’s Word and pass it on to the next generation. They start to build it into their lives at an early age. I appreciate the faithful workers we have that take this responsibility so seriously and work so diligently even with those in the younger ages and build it in so that as they come we are building on it and building on it and building on it. Only God can change a heart but He changes hearts through the truth of His Word; the clarity of these verses. What are we to be about, truth, teaching the truth, filling our minds with the truth.

What was the early church doing in Acts chapter 2, they were devoting themselves to the apostles teaching in Acts 2:42. Not because it was about the apostles but it’s God’s truth. The church is the pillar and support of the truth.

In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20. He says in verse 19 “That we are fellow citizens with the saints, are of God’s household having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” The truth that was revealed through apostles and prophets that gives us our New Testament and then the truth that had been revealed through Old Testament prophets and writers. I mean that is the foundation for us.

We are not looking for new truth. We are not looking for new methods. The old methods are God’s methods. Preach the truth. Study the truth. Fill your heart and mind with the truth. Handle accurately the truth. The church ought to be a place where people come to seriously grapple with truth. This is not a relaxing place. We are here to the best of our ability to study, wrestle with the truth of God’s Word, get them fixed in our mind.

I appreciate the kind of environment where we have people who are willing to forego being in the service so they can be there taking care of young children so that here we can concentrate our attention more fully on the Word of God and children can be in a context where ministry is geared to them. You realize how people and their contribution are enabling the work of the church to be carried out and nothing changes. This was God’s pattern 2,000 years ago, it’s been God’s pattern down through church history and while the church continued to move in every generation away God is faithful to raise up others who will be faithful to the truth because He will not let His truth be lost. Here we are. We have the truth 2,000 years after the New Testament, 3,500 years after Moses wrote his books. It was all passed down, preserved, kept even when they didn’t have computers to store it, passed down and down and down.

We have a treasure. We have a great blessing. This is a place where the truth is proclaimed.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your truth. Lord in all honesty it is easy for us to become complacent with the truth. Lord we have such rich blessings that it is easy to begin to take our blessings for granted to become careless with our blessings to become lax. We do need reminding. Thank You for Your patience, Your grace, Your mercy that you deal with us as Your children but Lord You are a demanding heavenly Father and we want to be faithful with the truth. Praying You will use us in bringing this truth to others as we are nourished by it ourselves. We pray for the week ahead of us. Lord, we pray You will bless the Vacation Bible School. Pray for each kid who is here Lord that Your Spirit would work in their young precious lives. Pray for the workers, the teachers, Lord the pressure of the week as schedules are adjusted. Lord we pray Your Spirit will work as only He can in and through the workers, the teachers. Pray for Thursday evening as parents and grandparents and friends come together that the truth will impact lives of those who have not been exposed to the truth. In all of these things it is our great privilege to serve You. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.