Stirring Up Our Pure Minds

Temple Baptist Church - 6-6-2018

2 Peter 3:1-7

Introduction:

A.  Stirring up our minds is an important part of the work of the pastor.  Reinforcement is one of teaching’s greatest tools.  Repetition, repeatedly using the same facts or verses keeps the mind stirred.

2 Peter 1:12-15  Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.  (13)  Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;  (14)  Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.  (15)  Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

B.  Like most preachers, I am always looking for “nuggets” in the Bible so that I can peach something different or from a different perspective.  This is good, but it is also important to preach and reproach on the same subjects. 

C.  Often, people write in the margins of their Bibles who preached and when a portion of Scripture was preached.  This is both necessary and biblical. 

1.  First, we tend to forget over time.  

2.  Secondly, in the past 10 years, we have had children who have grown up and need to hear what you heard. 

3.  Thirdly, there are new people who join our fellowship who have never heard.

D.  We stir our cooking food often to keep the right consistency and flavor. 

1.  The Problem.  The possibility and probability of our minds tend to sleep spiritually as we live from day to day.    

a.  We are to remember and be mindful.  Romans 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

b.  Have you noticed when someone begins to quote a verse that we have not read of thought of in a long time, we are able to finish it?  Though we know these verses, we do not think upon them because of our busyness. 

2.  The Prophecy.  The Bible, correct as usual, prophesized the rising denial of creation.  To deny creation is to deny God. 

a.  The God Is Dead Theory.  Verse 4.

1)  In this verse, we find the prophecy of the “God is Dead Theory.”  That God created the heavens and the earth and, in the process of time died.  I am sure that you older folks remember those days. 

2)  Modern “scientists” reject the “God Is Dead Theory, because it implies that there was a God in the beginning.  They want that thought thoroughly erased because they do not want there to be a God.  Thus:

b.  The Evolution Theory.  Verse 5. 

1)  Over the past 100 years, the Evolution Theory has become the “Evolution Fact” to be taught in public schools.  “Science falsely so-called” has taken the place of true science.  To do away with God, some plausible beginning must be concocted.  

2)  To view the universe in all its perfect design, to view this earth in all its distinction and perfection, and to reject God requires (verse 5) willful ignorance!  No randomness caused by the destructive force of an explosion of something that had to previously exist which denies a “true beginning” that all believe in.

3.  Their Person.  Scoffers! 

a.  By both biblical definition and Merriam-Webster, to deride or to ridicule, to jeer or mock, to make fun of.  They reject the judgement of sin (Genesis 6) because they do not want the judgement of eternal fire (Revelation 20:15-20) that is to come. 

b.  Our society puts people on medication or in mental institutions that talk to someone who does not exist.  When Vice President Pence said that God spoke to him, he was ridiculed but Christians understood what he said.  God speaks to the heart of His children and they know His voice. 

John 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

1 Kings 19:12-13  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.  (13)  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

4.  Their Perversion.  “Walking after their own lusts.”  When men scoff at the very thought of God, perversion becomes the norm.  Just look at our society over the past 60 years as God has been banished from the homes, schools, and nation.  Perversion is taught as normal and to be accepted while true Christianity has become abnormal and to be rejected.

Conclusion:  Saved people have “pure minds” and understand how the beginning transpired but must be careful to not fall into the trap of public opinion and scoffers.