25-0507wc Transcript

Teacher: Mike Mathis

(0:04) Good evening. (0:06) I think what I’m going to do is, this is the third in part that I started two weeks ago. (0:17) If the Lord stirs you up.

(0:21) I think the way I’m going to do this is I’ve got three passages of scripture I’m going to read first, (0:28) and then I will make comments on this. (0:32) The first reading will be taken out of 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 through 11. (0:43) And then the next two are going to be out of 2 Peter.

(0:49) And it’s going to be, the first one is going to be out of the first chapter. (0:54) And then in the same book, 2 Peter, chapter 3, beginning with verse 1. (1:08) First of all, I’m going to read in 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 through 11. (1:16) Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

(1:32) I’m reading from the King James Version, because this version has the phrase, stir up, where others may have it changed. (1:50) For God has given us, or rather for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2:07) Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.

(2:29) But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, (2:40) who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, (2:49) but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. (3:02) But it is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, (3:14) who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. (3:24) Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.

(3:35) And so I’m going to go to 2 Peter, the first chapter, beginning with verse 12 and reading through verse 13. (4:14) 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. (4:28) Yea, I think it means, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.

(4:41) And verse 14 says, knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. (4:56) And then in chapter 3 of 2 Peter, going to read verses 1 through 5 or 6. (5:19) The second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance, (5:33) that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. (5:53) Knowing this verse, that thou shalt come in the last days, golfers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? (6:08) For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

(6:18) For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perched. (6:46) Now I’m going to make these comments in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 6. (7:06) Paul tells, talking to Timothy, he says, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. (7:28) We remember that the apostles were the ones that could impart to others the gift of the Holy Spirit to do miracle works, to perform those works.

(7:56) And the apostle Paul was able to put his hands upon Timothy and impart to him some gifts. (8:10) Don’t know what that gift is, but anyway, that he was to stir it up. (8:19) And I will also at this time want to say that in all three of these readings, one thing is mentioned in all three, and that is remembrance.

(8:45) I’ll put thee in remembrance. (8:51) He reminded Timothy, he said, I’ll put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. (9:07) And so did Peter when he mentioned that in the first chapter in 12 and 13, he was to put them in remembrance of the things that they were taught.

(9:37) And he reminded them that they were to dwell in them. (9:47) And so, but he was, Paul was wanting Timothy to stir up the gift of God. (10:01) And that he not be given the spirit of fear, he said, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of his sound mind.

(10:21) And then he talked about being a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. (10:32) And for Timothy in verse 8 of chapter 1, not to be ashamed. (10:43) Paul in Romans 1 said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.

(10:58) So the gospel then we are to abide in, we are to live, we are to stay with it, because the gospel has the power to save, we are to preach it, and we are to abide in it. (11:27) We want to now look at closer at what Peter said in 2 Peter 1 verses 12 and 13. (11:45) 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.

(12:00) So he was always reminding them, there are things that they already knew, but he wanted them to remember these things, and be established in the present truth. (12:24) And Peter was nearing his death. He knew that pretty soon that he would cut off this tabernacle, or his spirit would leave this body.

(12:47) He wanted to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. (12:59) And what he told them later was how that they didn’t give them cunningly devised fables. (13:15) He said, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

(13:35) For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (13:55) And he’s talking about the Transfiguration, when Peter, James, and John were with him up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they were eyewitnesses of this. (14:17) And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount, and then we have a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, (14:43) and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.

(14:57) For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God’s faith, and they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (15:15) So he is referring them to the Word, and he’s talking about the scriptures, the prophecy of the scriptures, that it’s not of any private interpretation. (15:35) That those who made these prophetic words did not do so of their own mind, but they spoke as the Holy Spirit gave them out of it.

(15:55) And so they, so he got them to the Word, and it does so again in the third chapter, when he says this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. (16:23) And he’s wanting them to be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of our Lord and Savior. (16:44) And he said, wanted them to know that first of all, that in the last days, shepherds walking after their own looks and saying, where is the promise of his coming? (17:04) For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.

(17:12) And he said, for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. (17:46) So telling them everything has not been the same as it had been from the beginning, that the world then was destroyed by water. (18:04) And also telling them that the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

(18:29) So when we read these things and read what Paul had to say to Timothy and what Peter had to say to the people, he’s taking them back to the Word. (18:55) Taking them, the scriptures that they were having at that time was the Old Testament. (19:05) The New Testament was being written during their time as Paul’s letter to Timothy and these two letters of Peter, they were being written and they were being written to them.

(19:27) To remind them that they needed to go to the Word. (19:36) And if they go to the Word, that Word ought to stir up their minds and ought to bring to their remembrance they were enjoying it. (19:54) The Gospel was being preached, so they needed to do that.

(20:02) And that’s the same today. (20:06) We have those that would teach that and say that we’re guided by the Holy Spirit apart from His Word. (20:21) We have the Holy Spirit working.

(20:28) Now there’s one thing that I firmly believe, I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit worked, that I would learn the truth. (20:41) Because where we lived, there was this preacher, they were holding a Gospel meeting, a tent meeting, but they came up and across from where we lived, they rented this storeroom. (21:09) That the woman they rented that storeroom also was our landlord.

(21:21) We lived in a house that was all covered in tin. (21:27) But I was, when I went in there, I was sitting in front of that storeroom where the church was meeting. (21:47) I was with my brother, my older half-brother that was next to me.

(22:00) And they took him in, but I didn’t want to go in because I was dirty. (22:13) But the preacher’s wife said, oh you don’t have to worry about being dirty. (22:21) But I went across the road back to the house and helped bathe the younger kids.

(22:38) And after I bathed them, then I took a bath. (22:45) And then I got to thinking, because my half-brother was over there, I thought to myself, he may not come over here. (23:00) And it happened at that time that my mother was in the hospital giving birth to the youngest, the baby one in the family.

(23:17) And knowing how his father was and saying things when he gets started, he doesn’t say the nicest things. (23:35) So I just thought to myself, I better go over there and see that he gets home. (23:46) Because he’ll probably go out there and go somewhere else, and it would be dark.

(23:57) So it was right at the end of the service. (24:03) The invitation was being given. (24:08) And that invitation stuck in my mind.

(24:16) Well, I kept going until almost a year, it was almost a year. (24:29) It was July 17th when the first service of the gospel meeting would be. (24:37) Saint Man was going to preach that series of meetings.

(24:45) And I remember that my stepfather and his brother was talking about the Cuban situation at that time. (25:04) About Russia sending missiles to Cuba. (25:10) And said, yes, and that’s 90 miles from Key West, Florida.

(25:15) And that got me thinking, those missiles are going into Cuba. (25:23) And they decide to send one of those, send a missile on us. (25:30) I said, I need to be baptized.

(25:35) I knew what I needed to do. (25:39) And about at that time, I was not one that would speak up and originate the talk about my being baptized. (25:56) But the local preacher who started working, he asked me my age.

(26:07) And I told him I was going to be 14 in August. (26:21) And he said, well, you’re old enough to be thinking about being baptized. (26:29) I said, yes, I’ve been thinking about that.

(26:34) And, you know, I do believe that the Holy Spirit was actively working. (26:46) But I believe He worked through the Word. (26:50) I learned the Word.

(26:51) I had the Word taught to me. (26:54) And so we need to be reminded oftentimes to stay in the Word. (27:03) Now, yes, the Holy Spirit is active.

(27:08) He works. (27:10) And He does work. (27:13) God works.

(27:15) And our Lord and Savior works. (27:20) But it will be through the Word. (27:23) And that’s what we need to go to.

(27:26) And it’s His Word that brings to our remembrance what we learned. (27:36) And when we are reminded of those things, we may, oh, I know those things. (27:46) Yes, we do.

(27:50) So it’s good to go back over them because if we stay away from them long enough, portions of His Word we forget. (28:03) And so we need to be reminded that it is His Word that can stir us up. (28:12) And in that way, it is the Lord, it is God, the Holy Spirit stirring within us.

(28:25) And that’s what we need to have. (28:28) We need to have the Lord stir us up. (28:36) And that’s what our lesson here is about.

(28:41) We know that we work miraculously. (28:47) We’ve talked about things that said that the Lord stirs people up in the Old Testament and what happens. (29:01) But this time it’s a little different.

(29:04) It has a spiritual value. (29:08) So when we read these words, may God stir us up and may it stir us up to at least tell others about God and His love for us and His sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (29:38) And that’s all that I have to say on that.

(29:44) And if there’s nothing else, let us have a word of prayer. (29:51) Father in Heaven, we thank You that we can come to Your Word and know what’s in Your Word. (30:04) And when we read Your Word, we pray that will let it stir us up and to do things that we are supposed to do.

(30:21) And that is to take the gospel. (30:24) And yes, there are times that we may suffer persecution verbally. (30:32) We may be attacked.

(30:35) But help us to have faith and trust in You and be strong and not be fearful as the Apostle Paul told Timothy. (30:51) And we pray, O Father, that we will have the same spirit, that we also will have the boldness to speak Your Word. (31:06) Father in Heaven, we again pray for those that are sick.

(31:12) We pray especially for Wally Kobisky and Carol. (31:19) We pray for Ramona Tuck. (31:23) We pray for Tracy and Tierra and those that have been diagnosed with COVID.

(31:31) Be with them. (31:35) And Father in Heaven, we pray that You’ll be with Ramona Tuck. (31:42) She is going to have surgery on her esophagus.

(31:49) And we pray that You’ll be with her and her family. (31:53) And Father in Heaven, be with us as we leave. (32:00) May we be strong in You and go forward knowing that You will be with us.

(32:12) And that we will someday hear Your voice. (32:18) And we pray that it will be a welcoming voice saying, (32:23) Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of life. (32:30) This we pray in the name of Christ our Redeemer.

(32:33) Amen.