2 Peter 1:9. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,
He is short-sighted; he has some light, and some physical sight, but he cannot see to a distance; spiritually, he is blind.
2 Peter 1:9. And hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
It is a great mercy not merely to see men as trees walking, but to have clear spiritual vision. There is a great deal of dust that gets into our eyes, and there is no way of clearing out that dust, and becoming long-sighted, getting a sight that can see to heaven, except by getting that spiritual life which manifests itself in faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.
2 Peter 1:10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall:
This is the second time that Peter writes about giving diligence. We are told not to be slothful in business, and this matter of which Peter writes is the most important of all business. To prosper in this world may bring some advantages, but to prosper in heavenly things is infinitely better.» «Give diligence to make your calling and election sure,»-that you may be sure of it, and that others may be sure of it too. Let it not continue a subject of question with you, «Am I the Lord's, or am I not? Am I called by grace, am I chosen by God, or am I not?» Make these things sure beyond all doubt.
2 Peter 1:11. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
You shall get far into the kingdom, you shall know the innermost joys of it. You shall get near the King, and you shall become like the King; and when you come to die, you shall not be tugged into the harbor like a dismasted, water-logged vessel, but you shall go in like a full-rigged ship with all sails set, and so you shall have an abundant entrance into the fair haven of eternal felicity. May God grant us this unspeakable blessedness, so that we shall not «be saved, yet so as by fire» but that we shall find our heaven begun below, and go from heaven below to heaven above scarcely knowing any change at all! There have been saints who have found the steam of Christ's love running so strongly, and carrying them down to the great ocean of eternal life, that they have scarcely known where the river and the ocean have met.
2 Peter 1:12. Therefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,-
He who exhorts others to be diligent must not himself be negligent, and Peter most appropriately writes, «Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,»-
2 Peter 1:12. Though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
We need to preach the truth continually, for even those who know it need to be reminded of it again and again. Truth unpublished is like seed laid up in a florist's shop, it does not produce any result. We need to have the truth constantly sown in our hearts, and watered by the Holy Spirit that it may grow, and bring forth fruit.
2 Peter 1:13. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
When people are as they should be, it is worth while to stir them up. You do not want to stir up dirty water, but you may stir that which is pure and sweet as much as ever you like. And a good fire sometimes becomes a better one by a little stirring up.
2 Peter 1:14. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
The Lord had told Peter how he was to die. He had told him that he would die by crucifixion: «When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.» He knew that the day of his martyrdom was approaching, and so, being divinely warned, he was the more earnest to preach as a dying man to dying men. I have sometimes heard, as a criticism of that expression of Baxter's about a dying man preaching to dying men, the remark that it would be better, as living men, to preach to living men. It is quite true that we must throw all our life into our preaching; but, as a rule, living men are never more truly alive than when they are under a due sense that they are also dying men. When we realize that eternity is very near us, and we are consciously drawing near to the great judgment-seat of Christ, than all our faculties are fully aroused, and our whole being is bent on doing the Master's work with the utmost vigor and earnestness.
2 Peter 1:15. Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
When we are gone from the earth, we want the truth that we have spoken to live on after us, we want even from our graves to continue to speak for Christ. Therefore it was that Peter kept on repeating the same truth over and over again. He hit this nail on the head many times, and sought to clinch it, so that, when he was gone, it would not start from its place, but would remain firmly fixed.
2 Peter 1:16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,-
He had no retractions to make as he came towards the close of his ministry. He did not have to say that, after all, he had been greatly mistaken; there had been an advance in theology since Jesus Christ had died, and he was sorry to say that he had preached a good deal when he was young which he would like to unsay now that he was old. Oh, no! Peter held fast to what he had previously preached because he knew that it was the very truth of God, and the other apostles had done the same, so that Peter could write, We have not followed cunningly devised fables,»-
2 Peter 1:16. When we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Peter was one of the three who saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory upon the Mount of transfiguration, and he recalls this.
2 Peter 1:17-18. For he received from God the Father honour 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. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Peter was not deceived about that matter; at the time, he and his fellow-apostles had been overcome by the too-transporting sight, but they all knew that it was no vision, or dream, or delusion, so Peter here speaks very positively concerning it. Why can we not receive the testimony of true witnesses such as Peter and the other apostles who sealed with their life's blood the witness which they bore to their Lord and his truth?
2 Peter 1:19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
Can anything be more sure than that which an eye-witness sees? Well Peter says that this prophetic Book, in which Holy Scripture is stored up is better to us than if we had even seen Christ himself. If any one thing be more sure than another, it is this blessed book-revelation of the Christ of God.
2 Peter 1:19-20. Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
It is not to be kept by any man to himself. God spoke to Jacob at Bethel, and we read concerning it, in Hosea 12:4, «there he spake with us.» With regard to the children of Israel rejoicing at the Red Sea, we read, in the sixty-sixth Psalm, «There did we rejoice in him.» The promises God made to this believing man or that he makes to all believing men. You remember that text, «He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.» That promise was first of all spoken to Joshua, yet Paul quoted it, in writing the Epistle to the Hebrews, as if it was spoken to every believer, and so indeed it is. No apostle, no prophet, could hedge up a promise, and say, «This was mine and nobody else's.» It is a common heritage of all the saints. Every promise is within the boundary of the covenant of grace, and all who are in that covenant are heirs of all the promises, to whomsoever they were made.
2 Peter 1:21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
This is the foundation of our faith,-that this Book is divinely inspired. Suffer nobody to make you doubt concerning this matter; for you must give up Christianity itself if you give up the inspiration of this Book. You have nothing else to fall back upon but this Book and your own personal verification of it by the work of the Holy Ghost in your own soul. To tamper with inspiration is to tamper with the heart of true religion. The least doubt upon that matter is fatal. I mean what I say, and I know how desperately this mischief is working in these days in which we live. Men used to say, with the famous Chillingworth, «The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants;» and so it was once. Yet now it seems to me that anything but the Bible is coming to be their religion but, as for us, we accept as authoritative nothing that contradicts these truths which are written in this Book. We mean to stand fast by these truths, God helping us; we can do no other, come what may in this evil age. «Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.»