Wholesome Thinking

2 Peter 3:1-2
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, February 17, 2019
Copyright © 2019, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

We have been preaching through the Second Epistle of Peter. In chapter 2 of this epistle, the apostle Peter deals with false teachers in God’s holy church of God. He says, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute” (2 Pet. 2:1–2). This has been happening throughout the history of the church. Jude, the brother of our Lord Jesus, gives the same warning in his epistle: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4).

Many churches have become synagogues of Satan where antinomianism prevails. Their philosophy is, “Jesus and immorality.” Jesus himself said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you doers of evil!’” (Matt. 7:21–23). May God help us to hear and do the will of God. This is serious deception. We are to go to church to go to heaven. But there are churches that lead people to hell.

So Peter dealt with such fake, unregenerate pastors in 2 Peter 2. Now, in 2 Peter 3:1–2, the apostle wants to stimulate his readers to wholesome thinking. He writes, “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.”

In the parable of the sower, the good soil stands for regenerate people. All four soils are in the church, but in due time, those who belong to the first three soils will make their way out. Such people are unregenerate and therefore incapable of wholesome thinking. But Peter is addressing regenerate people, those who can and should be spurred on to wholesome thinking. We want to look, first, at what unwholesome thinking is, and, second, at wholesome thinking.

Unwholesome Thinking

All children of Adam are fallen. They are totally depraved, perverted, twisted. They cannot think correctly. They cannot think in a God-centered, biblical way. They hate the Bible. Consider the following scriptures that speak about man’s condition:

• Genesis 6:5: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”
• Psalm 10:4: “In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”
• Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The most intelligent person, even with a PhD from Harvard, is a fool if he or she does not believe in God.
• John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” How many universities and colleges of the world lie! Every day they lie, especially when they say, “There is no God. Science is the only god.” But the Bible speaks about the God of science.
• Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Only God can understand the human heart.
• Matthew 15:19: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
• Romans 3:4: “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” This is speaking about every fallen man.

Paul tells us in Romans 5:6–10 that unregenerate people are dead, powerless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. Indeed, throughout the New Testament, we read of the condition of the unregenerate:

• 1 Corinthians 2:14: “The man without the [Holy] Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
• Romans 1:18: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”
• Romans 1:21: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
• Romans 1:24: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.”
• Romans 1:26: “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.” God gives people over to their lusts so they may sin and sin and sin. They enjoy the pleasures of sin. But it is only for a season. It is a divine judgment.
• Romans 1:28: “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” In Romans 1:29–31, Paul gives a long list of sins that people commit every day. And, in fact, in verse 32, Paul says such wicked people also promote evil among others.
• Ephesians 2:1–3: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. . . . All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath,” meaning the wrath of God.
• Ephesians 4:18–19: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” They are never satisfied by wickedness.
• 2 Peter 2:19: “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity.” They promise freedom, but what do you get? Slavery to sin.

The unregenerate live by the lie that there is no God—God, as defined by the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 4. The question is, “What is God?” And the answer is, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” He is triune Creator, Redeemer, transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. To not believe in the God of the Bible is unwholesome thinking.

Wholesome Thinking

What, then, is the wholesome thinking Peter is talking about? There are seven aspects we want to examine. 

You Must Be Regenerate

Correct thinking is only possible for regenerate people. The fool says, “There is no God” (Ps. 14:1). Unregenerate are children of the devil, who is the father of all lies (John 8:44). The devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). There is a hell. It is prepared for the devil and all his followers, which includes evil angels and non-elect fallen humans.

Only the regenerate can experience godly, holy thinking. Only the regenerate can think biblically. Their thinking is Christ-centered. So if you are not born again, you must cry out, as the Philippian jailer cried out in the middle of the night, “What must I do to be saved?” And the answer came: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and your whole household” (Acts 16:30–31).

We must be born again to understand and experience the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see [understand] the kingdom of God unless he is born again. . . . I tell you the truth, no one can enter [experience] the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit’” (John 3:3, 5).  And Peter tells us, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3).

The greatest miracle God performed in this world is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and, therefore, the salvation of God’s elect who are dead in their sins. So we read, “I will sprinkle clean water[1] on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart [regeneration] and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone [rebellion] and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:25–27). Through the Holy Spirit’s enabling, we obey God’s will.

We can do nothing to deserve or bring about our own regeneration. It is God’s monergistic act. Why? Because by nature we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Paul writes, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. . . . For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do ” (Eph. 2:4–5, 10).

In the parable of the sower, the good soil stands for those who are regenerate. The farmer went to sow the word (Mark 4:14). The farmer is the pastor who preaches the word of God. And “good soil” regenerate people will bring forth thirty, sixty, hundredfold obedience to the will of God. The regenerate person has a regenerate mind to understand the word of God. He has a regenerate will to will the will of God. He has a regenerate feeling to feel the way God wants him to feel in any situation.

A regenerate person alone will truly repent and believe. Repentance and faith are the gifts of God to a regenerate person. So a born-again child of God can do all these things by the Holy Spirit who dwells in him. As we read in Ezekiel, the Lord says, “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to obey me.”

Regenerate people have new intellects, new wills, and new feelings, so they can think, will, and feel the way God wants them to. So Paul writes, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us [in the gospel]” (1 Cor. 2:12). He also says, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). Only regenerate people can have the mind of Christ.  Only they can understand the word of God, will the word of God, and feel the way God wants them to feel. Paul also writes, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12–13). And he says, “We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Rom. 5:3–5).

This is the way of God. He gives us sufferings for a good purpose, that we might become like Jesus Christ. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29), who obeyed all that the Father told him to do.

James writes, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (Jas. 1:2–3). We do not want suffering. But God does not seem to hear our protests because he wants his people to be godly and holy. Peter writes, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:12–13). Only regenerate people who are thinking wholesomely can do rejoice in this way.

Regenerate People Are Beloved

The second point is that regenerate people are beloved by God. Peter writes, “Dear friends” (v. 1), but this translation in the New International Version is not correct, though it occurs in 2 Peter 3:1, 8, 14, 17.  The Greek word is agapêtoi, which means “beloved.” It has the same root as the word agapê (“love”). Regenerate people are called “beloved.”

We are beloved of God in his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:17). God foreknew us from all eternity. Professor John Murray says “foreknew” means “foreloved.” God foreloved us in eternity, before creation, before we were ever born. That understanding alone is sufficient for us to live for God and go through suffering while rejoicing.

We are beloved of God in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God foreknew us (foreloved us) in eternity. We are beloved also of the Son. He loves his church, as we read in Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.” And in Ezekiel 34, we read that the bad shepherds ate their sheep. But then the Lord promises, “I will give you a good shepherd.” And four times in John 10 we are told that Christ is the good shepherd, who loves the church and laid down his life for her on the cross (John 10:11, 15, 17, 18).

Christ loved us and died on the cross in our place for our sins. He paid the highest price to redeem us who are the beloved of Christ. Jesus asked, “What does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?” (Matt. 16:26). Now, Christ himself owns the whole world, for he created it. But even if we could own it, it could not buy our salvation. The love of Christ for us is the highest, greatest love in heaven and on earth.

We are loved also by God’s family, the church. That is why in this church we take care of God’s people. John writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:16–18).

It is not just pastors who are to love the sheep. Every born-of-God believer is responsible to take care of every other person in God’s holy church. (PGM) That is what Christ-centered thinking is.

Do you want to know how great the love of God is? Paul says, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). Then he says, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39).

God loves us with his everlasting love, from eternity to eternity. That is all we need to know. Even when we sin, God loves us, and the Holy Spirit convicts us that we may repent and obey. But his Holy Spirit will never leave us, if we are his beloved.

God Stirs Up Our Minds

So Peter says, “This is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking” (v. 1). The third point about wholesome thinking is that God himself will stir up and stimulate our minds.

Though we are regenerate people in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, we can sometimes be spiritually asleep. When this happens, the Holy Spirit must awaken us, and, thank God, he does so. As we listen to the preaching of the word, he revives us. As we listen to godly counsel, he revives us. As we read the word, as we sing, as we worship, as we work, and even as we sleep, God will stir us up to do his will.

God especially uses his word of truth to revive us. So Peter says that he wrote his two epistles to arouse, awaken us, and stimulate us to wholesome, correct, pure, holy, godly thinking. Such Bible-centered thinking is the right thinking for God’s people.

The regenerate person indwelt by the Spirit is enlightened to think Christ-centered thoughts in the whole Bible.

Christ-Centered Thinking

Wholesome thinking is Christ-centered thinking. When he encountered the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. . . . Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:25–27; 45–47).

Without Christ-centeredness, the Bible does not make any sense. It does not make sense without faith in God, whom the Bible affirms in Genesis 1:1 and Hebrews 1:1–3. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And look at Hebrews 1: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 1:1–3). Without Christ-centered thinking, we do not understand anything correctly.

No unbeliever in Jesus can think correctly, especially in regard to the true and living God. The Bible alone is the word of God, the truth. So Peter said, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). And Paul said, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly [furnished] for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Only through the lens of Scripture do we know reality.

Jesus Himself Believed the Truth of the Bible

Jesus himself believed the truth of the Bible. In Luke 4:4, 8, we read that when the devil tried to tempt him, Jesus resisted the devil, saying, “Gegraptai” (“It is written”).  In other words, he was saying, “The Bible is my authority and I obey it.”

Jesus Came to Obey the Scripture

Not only did Jesus believe the truth of the Bible, but he fulfilled it through his obedience. Psalm 40 speaks about Christ: “Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’” (Ps. 40:7–8). Jesus Christ delighted in the law of God (Ps. 1).

Do you delight in the law of God? Elsewhere Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). He did not just understand the will of God; he obeyed it. He also said, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29). Obedience brings fellowship with God, which is the highest blessing we can have. Jesus also said, “But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). May God help us to love his word and do his word, that we may have fellowship with him.

Jesus came to do God’s work. He said, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). His work included his death on the cross. God planned our redemption, Christ accomplished it, and the Holy Spirit applies it to the elect of God.

Jesus completed the work God gave him to do. So we read, “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished’ (‘Tetelestai’)” (John 19:30). What is the proof that Jesus finished his work? The proof is that we are saved and made children of God. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). His life flows into us, causing us to produce fruit, more fruit, and much fruit for the glory of God the Father. Without faith in the God of the Bible, one becomes a liar. Let God be true and all men liars, which does not include God’s people.

Faith in the Whole of the Bible

Peter concludes, “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (v. 2). In other words, we are not to pick and choose from the Bible. We are to have faith in the whole Bible—the writings of the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through the apostles. Elsewhere Paul declared, “For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God,” the whole will of God (Acts 20:27). That is what we do in this church.

The greatest miracle in the Bible is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without the resurrection of Christ, there is no salvation. If Christ was not raised, then he is a liar because he said he would be raised. And not only would he be a liar, but then he himself would need a Savior.

How did Paul explain this miracle to the unbelieving Festus and King Agrippa? Festus had said to King Agrippa, “They had some points of dispute with [Paul] about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive” (Acts 25:19). Greek philosophy said dead men never rise from the dead. In fact, to them, death is salvation. But what did Paul say? “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). A person is a fool if he questions the resurrection of Christ.

God is almighty, infinite in his power and wisdom. And this God raises the dead. He does not lie. Paul begins his letter to Titus, speaking about “a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Titus 1:2).

To think wholesomely, we must be filled with the Scripture and with the Holy Spirit. We are to hear the word of God to do it. In the Scripture, God is speaking to us personally that we may conform to the image of Christ. In the Scripture, God speaks to us personally, teaching us, rebuking us, correcting us, comforting us, encouraging us, training us in righteousness, and reminding us to obey him.

In this church, we preach the word of God. The Bible says the disciples devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42). And Peter said in Acts 6:4, “[We] will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:18–20).

We must obey God’s word. So when the mother speaks, the children are to obey. When the father speaks, the children are to obey. When our pastor speaks, we are to obey.

Jesus said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). He also said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24).

Thank God, this is a church where the word is preached with authority—the authority of the Holy Spirit. God’s word enables us to engage in wholesome thinking.  And Proverbs 23:7 in the King James Version says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Right thinking produces right behavior of doing good works.

Let me remind you who is here. Christ is in our midst. He said, “If two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). Jesus himself is with us. His eyes are like blazing fire, and he sees our good works. May God help us to engage in wholesome thinking as well as in wholesome doing of the will of God. Jesus said, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).

We must not add to or subtract from the Scripture. We need pious and learned ministers to interpret Scripture in a Christ-centered, salvation-centered way. This is what we do.

Jesus Christ will have a bride, and we are his bride. So we read:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” He has a bride, the elect. And they hear the word and do the word. They live a holy life. “Fine linen, bight and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.). (Rev. 19:6-8)

Consider these words from Psalm 1. This is what Jesus practiced. So we read, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” He does so to find out the will of God that he may do it. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Ps. 1:1–3).

Thank God for the Scripture! Thank God for regeneration! Thank God for wholesome thinking! Thank God for being able to delight in the word of God! We are blessed, being blessed, and will be blessed.

 

[1] Professor John Murray taught that clean water stands for the preaching of the word of God.