Sermon/Thoughts on 2 Peter 1.
Nashua, New Hampshire
June 27, 1909
Previously unpublished.
2 Peter 1:1-5. Diligence. You will see we have a plan of addition to work upon. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 1
Verses 5-10. If you fall, your whole life is lost. “For if ye do these things ye shall never fall.” Verse 11. Here you see it is by living upon the plan of addition that we are to obtain that entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is our everlasting life insurance policy. A life that measures with the life of God. If you live on the plan of adding virtue to virtue, and thus work day by day to be overcomers, you shall so stand before God that you will have an entrance into the everlasting kingdom. Now here is you life insurance policy. He says, “If ye do these things ....” 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 2
Verse 10. Now just remember these points, just keep them in your mind. It is your eternal life insurance policy. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 3
Verse 11. There it is, the everlasting life insurance policy. How much better is that than to spend your life here in order to gain a little property and to insure yourself that you have something. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 4
Verse 13. Supposing that every one of us was more faithful that we are to guard not only our own interests but the interests of others. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 5
Now you see, there is a large blessing held for us. Beside this, giving all diligence, etc. to verse 10. There is your life insurance policy, and we want every man and every woman to lay hold of this insurance. And we want every one of us to be in that position that we shall appreciate what it means, the life insurance policy, by living on the plan of adding grace to grace. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 6
We want heaven; we can make no haphazard work. We must have that light that shineth into our hearts to reflect to the hearts of others. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 7
Now he says, verses 12-15. You see there is much importance attached to this matter, and I want you to study this especially because here is your life insurance policy, eternal life insurance policy, and that is what we are all seeking. If we lose heaven, we lose everything. We cannot afford to make any mistake in this matter. We want the truth, and we want it on every point. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 8
Verses 16-18-21. Now we want to study if possible that plan of addition. We will read the first verses again. Verses 1-3. Then there is the plan of addition that I have read to you. Now we want to be in a position that we are overcomers. No matter how much you have studied, no matter how much you think you know, unless you know enough to live upon the plan of addition, you need that education that is written right here in the Word, and then you need to follow it out. We do not want to go stumbling along in the path. We do not want to do that, and not know where our steps are leading us. We are to live upon the plan of addition, adding grace to grace, overcoming every day a readiness to speak impatiently. You have no right to speak a word impatiently even to your children, or to give them a shaking. It won’t shake the evil spirit out, but it will imbue them with the spirit that is not so easy for you to subdue. You want kindness, tenderness, and love; and that love wants to be carried out by every minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 9
There is to be no exaltation of minister above minister. We have had that. We have seen that tried, and we have seen it fail. What we want is to be in that kindness, that love, that tenderness, that Christ manifested toward us. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 10
We want life, we want eternal life in the kingdom of glory, everlasting life. Christ came to die for us. He left the royal courts. He clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might approach humanity and educate humanity to lay hold of His divinity, so that they might be partakers of the divine nature having overcome, what? The evil dispositions. The temptations that are in the world through lust. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 11
Some of us act just as though there was not any devil at all. As though there was not one seeking for the mastery with all his powers, and with all his being, as he looks forward to the time when the resurrection of the unjust shall come forth. Then he will rally his army. He hopes to gain the victory over the world at last. But we know better than that. We know that if there were but ten righteous men upon the earth, those ten would have a living connection with a living God. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 12
Christ gave evidence of His willingness to lay aside His royal crown, to lay off His royal robe, and to come to our world as a little child, and then to grow up from childhood. Angels of God guarded Him at every step of His childhood. Then when His reasoning powers began to work, angels of God were still ministering unto Him, and all through His life, even to the time of the suffering. Will He give Himself to death, will He do it? He did do it. And our life, eternal life, is to be made possible if we are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 13
Satan with his lusts and with his wickedness is working on the right hand and on the left hand, and in every way possible, to shut off the light, that it shall not come to the people. But we want every minister of Jesus Christ, men or women, that are ministers of the gospel of Christ as teachers that are teaching in our sanitariums and in our colleges—we want every one of us to place ourselves in right relation to God. We want to understand there is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. We want to make continual earnest efforts that we may win that crown of life that is for every one who overcomes. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 14
O, you cannot afford to lose your gentleness. You cannot afford to become cross and rough and uncourteous. Ministers do that sometimes. God wants ministers of the gospel to manifest the greatest courtesy in the world. Why? Because they are living on the plan of addition. “Add to your faith virtue ... Saviour Jesus Christ.” [Verses 5-11.] 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 15
Heaven is worth striving for, eternal life in the kingdom of glory. I remember when I stood, not exactly on these premises, but that I have stood in the large gatherings in South Lancaster, and in many places all around—large places—speaking to the people, and I remember when I see the young men—I have seen some of them since I have been on this journey, advanced in years very much—that were in these congregations. I would watch their countenances. Just as soon as I got through my discourse, while they were singing, I would make my way out to the one that I was sure realized what I was saying, and was touched by the Spirit of God. I would just entreat him to come right forward and seek the Lord. Well, I would have to urge sometimes, but we would get a large company before we got through, something as we did here. That is the way I used to do. I felt so intensely while they were in the valley of despair. I felt that if it was possible I would give my life if some persons I had looked upon would take their position for Christ, and most generally they did. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 16
We must act as though we were laborers together with God. The Lord Jesus has given us His Word. We are to present that Word, and then to try, with all the power that the Lord has given us, to wrench these men from Satan’s grasp, and these women, that he will lose his power over them. Christ has given His life, His precious life, that we might be partakers of the divine nature, and overcome the temptations that are in the world through lust. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 17
And why was He so sorrowful? He clothed His divinity with humanity that humanity might reach humanity, and there He worked in that humanity. But we want ministers to be just as earnest to work for humanity, for the salvation of souls. We do not want one to perish if any effort that we can make will bring them to the knowledge of the truth. We want heaven, and we want it on just the terms that it is given to us. Now I will read a few verses in the fifth chapter of 1st Peter: 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 18
Verse 1. “Glory that shall be revealed” to verse 4. Isn’t that enough? What greater assurance can you have? Verse 5. The more important your position, the more earnestly are you to represent Jesus Christ, the Author of our salvation. Verse 5. But how do you think I felt here yesterday when I saw that hearts were being moved, and all were interested to help them to take their position, and to come forward and present themselves for the prayers of God’s people, of those that were seeking the Lord. O, I prayed for you in the home that we have close by here. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 19
Verse 5. Not a single proud thought or action should come into the heart of any minister of Jesus Christ, but they should work interestedly. I believe that they worked thus yesterday, and that the salvation of souls will be the result. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 20
Verses 6, 7. Now you think of that. Don’t worry. Don’t fret. Don’t scold. It does not do a bit of good. But you just cast your care upon Him, and pray and believe. Verse 8. He is in this congregation today. He will try to instill these thoughts into your mind. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 21
Verses 9-11. Now, my brethren and my sisters, we have a grand work before us. It is to be laborers together with God. If ye are laborers together with Satan he will try to instill into minds those very things that He Christ would not have in their minds. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 22
Many are referring to the higher education, that our students must go to unbelievers to perfect their education. What a wonderful ignorance that is. There cannot be a greater ignorance. There cannot be a greater discount placed on the Word of the living God that to suppose that the higher education must be obtained, by what? Putting them under the influence of those that do not keep the commandments of God nor recognize those commandments. Now is that sensible? I am writing on the point, and I want to say the higher education is found in just such words as I have read to you today; that is higher education. “Add to your faith virtue ... Saviour Jesus Christ.” [2 Peter 1:5-11.] Isn’t that the highest education? Add all the Scriptures that shall direct you to such an education as that—you do not need to tack them to men and women that recognize not the authority of God in His law. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 23
We are seeking for a home, for the golden gates of the city of God to be swung back upon their glittering hinges, and the nations that have kept the truth to enter in. Angels of God are watching every soul. Angels of God are upon your pathway, and you do not need to go from where you are receiving the correct instruction to place yourselves under those that will insinuate error and doubt in your minds and call it the higher education. God is insulted by any such reference. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 24
Now I want to say, Give yourselves up, as was established when the schools of the prophets were established place after place before Elijah ascended to heaven. He went all around to view the schools of the prophets. And there the Spirit of God would come upon these students, and they would prophesy. And that was just before Elijah was translated to heaven. O we want to see the leaders, we have to see and tell the people that we must depend on an education from those that have a true sense of what is true education, that is how to secure that life which measures with the life of God, that life which procures for them the eternal life policy. It is that that we want every one to have, eternal life by the obedience to God’s Word. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 25
And when the parents shall bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they bring them, when the time shall come for them to take their position, they come to the gate of the city and it is swung back upon its glittering hinges and the nations that have kept the truth enter in, and don’t you think they will look upon their children with joy as they see them accepted? 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 26
O, your children, your children! Don’t expose them to a worldly education, that they cannot receive from the Word an acknowledgment of God’s commandments. Truth, we want truth in the inward parts. Truth that will live, truth that will increase in value day by day. We call upon all teachers, we call upon all our physicians, we call upon all our ministers, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, not to close that Book and say, Well, our children are not ready for the higher education, and introduce them right into the world where they do not acknowledge the higher education. What we want is to prepare our children for the courts of the Lord. What we want is that Christ should not have died for us in vain. What we want is to bring our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And if we have a disposition that is cross and rough, remember there is no entrance can be given to any soul unless they overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 27
We do not want to mislead a single mind, not a soul, and we do not want our physicians or ministers or any teachers in our schools to talk of a higher education than that which they can give if they read their Bible through, and see what prospect there is there of every one who appreciates the Word of the living God; we want to understand it. May the Lord let His Holy Spirit rest upon us here today. May the work that was begun yesterday continue all through this meeting. We are here for the saving of souls. Nothing else could have persuaded me to have come here at my age, nearly eighty-two years old. Since I was fifteen I have been teaching the Word in its simplicity in the little prayer meetings, and in different ways, until the ministers would send for me to come into congregations and give them that testimony, and I always went. And I would speak in their meetings. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 28
Now I am weak, to what I have been sometimes, but I thank God I can speak to you. And I want every one of you to just read your Bibles. Here is the educational book. You read very much of it, and you will see how God regards the higher education. It is in the Book. God help us that we may take hold of the educational interest in an altogether different bearing. We want our children associated with the heavenly interests in the heavenly sanctuary, and angels of God round about them. Angels of God are here today. Angels of God were here yesterday, moving upon the hearts. We know that. Now we want you to act just like living men and living women that have an interest in Jesus Christ, that you want to draw with all the power of your influence souls away from Satan’s ranks and place them where the heavenly angels will be their guardians, and will charge of them. We want every one of you to be Christians. We want to the King in His beauty. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 29
And now if there is one here today before me that wants to come to the Lord Jesus, that prefers to choose His society rather than the society of the world, I call upon you, as I did yesterday, to stand right up, and we will seek in every way possible to lead you to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Whoever makes up their mind will have Jesus as their friend, as their Saviour, as their life, and salvation, for it is He that places the crown, the immortal crown, upon the brow of the overcomer. It is the hand that trembled at the thought of separation from His Father. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 30
And there was the cup that was placed in His hands of suffering—that because of sin separated Him for a time from His Father—that Christ looked upon, and He sweat great drops of blood, falling down and moistening the sod of Gethsemane. He pled, If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. And then He said, Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, O God, be done. It was here that that cup trembled in the hands of Christ. Should He drink it? Of all the suffering, separation from God was what He feared, taking the sins of the whole world upon Himself. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 31
But an angel comes, a strong angel comes, and that angel strengthens Him to pass through the ordeal, and there it was He took the burden of the world upon Him. And then, when the saints come to city, and the gates are thrown back upon their hinges, and the nations that have kept the truth shall enter in, every soul that will work on the right side will realize what it means to be saved by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 32
Now I leave my message with you, and I say, Press on. Whoever will stand upon their feet, whoever will take their position for Christ right here, we ask you that you would just stand upon your feet in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That is my message. 24LtMs, Ms 118, 1909, par. 33