"The Last Words" By Associate General Pastor Hubert
Ulysse November 1st,
2015 Thank you; you may be seated. Good morning, everyone. This morning, I received a call from
Norfolk. In Norfolk, I am being treated
so good, in Norfolk they are worried about how I am being treated here. So, they called me, to ask me, with concern,
how am I being treated. And I told them,
I am even considering whether I should go back or not. Thank you very much. For those of you who don’t know
me, I am Pastor Ulysse. And, if you do
know me, I am still Pastor Ulysse. It’s
a privilege; it’s been too long. It’s
been too long. I have begged Jesse to
get married again, to have me come here.
He’s considering renewing his vows every year so I can come for that. You know, I have one, before I go
to the rest of it, I have one special Scripture I’d like to share with you
because this is a wish and greeting from Norfolk, from all the leadership and
everyone that I get a message from them to you.
It’s from Romans thirteen, verse eleven: 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. I knew I was going to come here,
and I know it has been a long time, and I asked the Lord to give me something
to share with you. That’s been a couple
of months ago, now. And the Lord gave me
Matthew chapter five, where it talks about, if you are asked to go one mile, go
with him twain. After I prepared it, and
I said, “Okay, that’s going to cover everything I want to say to you to
encourage you, Pastor Paine had to go out of town, and I had to preach the
message in Norfolk. So, if you want to
hear that, online, that’s where to get it.
It’s for you, okay? And then I
asked the Lord for another one for you, and the Lord gave me second Peter
chapter one, one through fifteen. And
that’s where we’re going to spend our time this morning. But, before that, let me ask you a
question: What does that mean to you,
”Last Words?” Last Words. What does, “Last Words” mean to you? Ed H. That means the last
words you say before you die. Before you’re gone. Okay, is that important in Illinois, or just
in Virginia? Do you want to hear the
last words of anybody who’s passing? Do
you think that’s important? What about
the will? If a person has a will, that’s
his or her last word, right? I think
more people want the will, because maybe that’s where the inheritance is. The inheritance is good, but it may be words
of encouragement to tell you, “Hey, I made this mistake, so avoid this. I made this mistake here; don’t make it.” It might be good, or, “This is my will for you,
that you be a good boy or a good girl.
Avoid this; avoid that.” If the
last word is important, we are going to read Peter, his second letter to the
church. This was his last words. Very important. Very important. His last words. Now, I love expository preaching, but, I will
not be able to do it word by word, verse by verse, but I would encourage you—I
am going to try to go fast with this—but, but I would encourage you, spend time
to find everything Peter wanted to tell you, here. I would like everyone to stand up, and let us
read together: 2 Peter 1:1-15 Simon Peter, a
servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God,
and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that
hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And
beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue
knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and
hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather,
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do
these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. 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.
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by
putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my
tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will
endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance. Thank you, you may be seated. Quickly, in verse one, he
introduced himself, with his two names, Simon, Peter, and he says he is a
servant, first, and an apostle after.
Then he says that he has written to them that have obtained like
precious faith. To them that have received
like precious faith. Does that include
you and I? You think the same faith that
Peter had, we have the same faith, too?
The like precious faith.
According to this, I just read, what have we received again? What have we obtained? Precious faith. How?
How did we receive it? Through
what? The righteousness of God? Is it because we are good? It is because God is good. We receive it through the righteousness of
God, okay? And our savior, Jesus
Christ. And he continues to say in verse
two, “And grace and peace be multiplied unto you.” What does he multiply unto us? Grace and peace. How?
Through the knowledge of God. So,
how is grace and peace going to be multiplied unto us? Through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus,
our Lord. Verse three: “According as his divine power hath given
unto us…” what? “…all things.” He has given us all things. What is missing in ‘all?’ Nothing.
Everything that we need that pertains unto life and godliness, we have
it. Everything! We don’t miss anything. And, if we don’t live in godliness, it’s not
because we don’t have everything. If we
miss anything in life, it’s not because we don’t have everything, because this
says, all things He has given unto us that pertain unto life and
godliness. And, how do you receive
that? Hallelujah, through the knowledge… Does that tell you anything? Through knowledge, grace and peace to be
multiplied, and, through knowledge, we receive all things pertaining to life
and godliness. “…of him that hath called
us to glory and virtue:” Verse four: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises…” You know, there
is a difference between when man promise and when God promise; you know that,
right? Man is limited! I may have good heart, good will, and whatever
I promise you is true, but I may be late, I may get the flat tire, I mean,
anything can happen, but what can stop God from accomplishing His
promises? Nothing. So, these are precious promises. “…that by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Let me stay here a little bit. It says by escaping the corruption of this
world, we might be partakers of the divine nature. Let me ask you this question: Are we divine nature or Adamic nature? What are we?
Adamic, right? Okay, now we are
given the promises to be partakers of the divine nature. Partaker doesn’t mean that you are all,
right? You are part of it. You understand that, right? We will always be human beings, regardless of
how holy we are. We will never be divine
beings, because God has attributes that He’s not going to share with
anybody. He is the One before, today,
and forever. Do you think God is going
to share His omnipresence?
Omnipotence? Omniscience? No.
Those are attributes that you and I will never have. But, there are some attributes that He will
share. Isn’t God love? Isn’t God patience? Isn’t God merciful? We can partake in that, right? Hallelujah, we can partake in that! So, escaping the corruption of this world,
partakers of the divine nature, we have transformed desires, because we desire
the things of God. The Adamic nature
cannot desire those things, those Spiritual things. Now, if we are not, if we don’t have the
desire of the things of God, we should ask ourselves, we should question if we
are partakers of the divine nature, because, constantly, we should want to the
things of God. We should want the things
of God. Salvation, really, what it is,
is looking more and more like God. More
and more like God. Like John the Baptist
said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) In verse five, he continues to
say, “And beside this…” Beside from this
one, all the things we talked about, “…giving all diligence, add to your faith…” Pretty much, spare no effort. Lavishly, add to your faith. Do everything you can do to add to your
faith. Do your best, like it says, and
God will do the rest. But, you’ve got to
do your best. You’ve got to do your
best. Now, you know, between the time
God saved us to the time we will be glorified, there is something in
between. What is it? Growth.
And it’s sanctification.
Transformation, right? When we
were dead in sin, could we do anything ourselves? Could we help God to save us? He did it all by Himself. He did it all by Himself. But after He saved us, He asked us to be a part
of the good, of the transformation. So,
we have to work on further transformation in our labor, in our diligence, in
our effort. Now, a dead person cannot
help with anything, can they? Remember
Lazarus? Lazarus was dead. What do you think, if Mary and Martha, that
believed in God, and they come to the tomb, and they say, “Lazarus, come
forth,” what would happen? But when
Jesus came, and He said, “Lazarus, come forth,”
what happened? What do you think
happened? He spoke life into him! So, it wasn’t like he was dead, and he heard
the voice; Jesus gave him life first, and then he was going to hear, and then
he came forth. We cannot attribute any
credit to Lazarus until after he
received life. After he received life
(John 11). 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. Before God saved us, we could not
understand anything. But, after we
received life, then he is asking us, because we can hear now, so we can partake. Now, the effort that we have to put, what is
the percentage that you think you are going to put in the effort? Is it ten percent? A half?
Fifty percent? The Bible says the
seeds fell in different ground, right?
We can understand that. But the
Holy Spirit was always there with us.
So, wherever we weep, the Spirit of God will help us. There is that Scripture I’d like to read for
you in Philippians chapter 2, where Paul told the Christians to work out their
salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling, and, right after that, he says: Philippians 2:13 For it
is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead,
being alone. So, okay, yeah, you need faith,
but it has to be faith with works. Now,
the Bible says we are saved by what? By
grace. Through what? Faith.
But what kind of faith? Is it a
faith that is nothing, just dead? Actually,
when James says, “Can faith save him?” really, can this kind of faith save
him? Can this kind of faith save
him? The kind of faith that doesn’t even
have the power to take you out of the corruption of this world? And then you’re asking for this faith to save
you. Paul said: Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus
Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but [but
what?] faith which worketh by love. Add to your faith virtue. Now, when we say virtue, the first thing that
comes to mind is the virtuous woman. Or
adding some great qualities that she has, and this scripture has been taken as
the things that he said, like love, and brotherly kindness, they’re taken as
virtues. No. This ‘virtue’ is not in the sense of
chastity, but it means courage. One who
does not run away. One who doesn’t give up. One who spins fast (??25:23??), more
excellence. That’s what it means: More excellence. Excellence reflected by fulfilling a person’s
or an object’s purpose. So, by using
this word, not only can a person be virtuous, but also an object. For example:
An excellent sword is one that serves its soldier well, okay? It’s a sword that cuts well. What do you have a sword for? To cut, right? If you cut the head… That’s why a soldier has a sword. A sword is a virtuous and excellent sword
because it is made with high-quality steel; it doesn’t break. What good is it, if you have that sword in
battle, and the sword breaks? That’s not
an excellent sword. It (an excellent
sword) is unbreakable in battle. An
excellent husband, a virtuous husband, like Malcolm, right? An excellent husband eats the food he wife
cooks. Is that not right? An excellent husband, will he watch TV? What is an excellent husband? What is a virtuous husband? What does that mean? What are the things that he does? He takes care of his wife. Is that part of it? He serves his wife. According to the Bible, an excellent husband
is one who loves his wife, and love includes…
You have to look what love is.
And what is an excellent and virtuous wife? According to the Bible, she is the one who
submits to her husband. What is an
excellent child? An obedient child. So, this ‘virtue’ means excellent, you
fulfill your purpose. Okay? So, how do we add virtue to our faith? By
fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.
The Bible says that God chose us so that we should show His praises (1
Peter 2:9). We do that by glorifying Him
by living it. By living it, whether
therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God
(1 Corinthians 10:31). Mundane things
like eating and drinking. The Bible
says, “Whatsoever.” What is missing in whatsoever? Whatsoever we do, do all to the glory of
God. Matthew 5:16 16Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. To virtue
we have to add knowledge. I’m going a little faster here, but you can
take your time, yourself, to study that.
Now, you know something, let’s say a person. “Oh, yeah, I know about so-and-so,” because
you read about him, or you her his name, or however, you just know about
him. That’s informational
knowledge. But there is a knowledge that
becomes relational. You know the person,
what they think, what they like, what they don’t like, you know, you know
them. Okay? But there is a transformational knowledge,
you want to be like that person. You
know that person so well, you want to be like that person. This knowledge that we’re talking about is
the knowledge that we want to be like God.
Okay? Romans 10:1-2 Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal
of God, but not according to knowledge. Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be
teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles
of the oracles of God… You know, some of us still need to
go back to the small things again, the principles? Hebrews 5:12-14 …and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that
useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But
strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [listen to this:] even those who by reason of use have their
senses exercised to discern both good and evil. John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. What is life eternal? That they may know Thee. When we say we have eternal life, we know God,
the true God. And how do we know
God? Are we just waiting for a revelation? We know Him by His words. 2 Peter 1:6 And to knowledge
temperance… And, to temperance we add patience
(2 Peter 1:6). Patience is endurance with
gladness; you endure it and you’re happy about it. That’s what patience means. And, to patience we have to add
godliness (2 Peter 1:6). Godliness, the
meaning of it is, devoted to a deity, devoted to God, God-fearing. That’s what godliness is; you fear God. And, to godliness, what do we
add? Brotherly kindness. This is what Jesus said about that John 13:34-35 A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have
love one to another. Paul continued to say: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 But
as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves
are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the
brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye
increase more and more; 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. You know, you can actually agape the
world, too. Yes. And let’s jump to verse eight: 2 Peter 1:8 For if these things be in you… What is the big little word
here? If. If these things be where? In you.
And how much? And abound. They be in you, and they also abound, they
make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in what? In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is what? Blind.
How far can the see? They cannot
see afar off. What happened to their
memory? He hath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins (2 Peter 1:9).
It says we cannot lose the sense of eternity. We cannot.
If we do, we will lose the perspective of eternal life, if we forget. The sense of good judgment is lost when we do
not have eternity in view. When we don’t
have eternity in view, we’re lost. Sometimes
we are so focused on the present, we cannot see the future. So focused on the present. And, some of us, maybe most of us, we possess
these things, but they are just enough to get by. They’re not abounding; they’re just
enough. And that makes us, like the
Scripture says, so near-sighted, that we become blind. I’m not really near-sighted—I don’t know what
I am—but I have to stop to adjust, but some people have to have it right here,
right? (Holding his Bible up somewhat close to his face) But, sometimes it’s so bad that we have to
hold it up here (holding his Bible very close to his face), and then we’re
pretty much blind. Without these additions to our
faith, we are more a liability than an asset to the church of God. Do you see what I am saying? Without these additions to our lives, we are
more a liability to the church of God than an asset. Have you heard about mixed blessings? Any of you know about mixed blessings? What do you know about mixed blessings,
Brother Parrish? Parrish: It has some
reservations with it. Okay. A mixed blessing, like—I don’t want to be a
mixed blessing to the church. A person
who is a mixed blessing to the church doesn’t have those things added to his or
her faith. What happens, today they are
a blessing to the church, and tomorrow, they are a mess that the church has to
clean. See what I mean? A blessing in one hand, and a mess in another
hand. When you add it together, what do
you get? Sometimes you might be in the
positive, sometimes you are in the negative, and there you have it, and you
have to… But that’s what leads me to
examine myself, how much have I grown since I believed? How much have I grown? How much have you grown since you believed? Do you feel any difference in virtue? Any difference in knowledge? Any difference in patience and temperance and
brotherly kindness and love? And Peter continues to say: 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: Verse twelve, he says: 2 Peter 1:12 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. But,
as long as I am in this tabernacle, I will stir you up, by putting you in
remembrance (2 Peter 1:13). I will continue
to do that. Why do you think Peter had such
a burden for doing that? Because he knew
that people would forget.
Absolutely. Out of sight, out of
mind. So, he was charged to feed the
sheep, right? (John 21:15-17) And he
wanted to make sure he did everything he could, because, it says in verse
fifteen: 2 Peter 1:15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be
able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. Even
after my death, because I was given this charge, and I take it seriously. But it takes practice. It takes practice; a lot of effort in the
word to grow in Christ. Before we be
glorified, we have our work cut out for us.
We cannot put a forty-year-old head on a three-year-old’s body. Can we do that? So, it is expected, if you are a child in
Christ, you have a child head.
Right? But, at the same time,
what if you find a forty-year-old come to church with a three-year-old head? I am saying, there is a deformation; there is
something that is not right. If we
consider the length we’ve been saved, and balance it with all these
things. Which, some of us should not
lack any of these things. Some of us
should not have the need to be told to love one another. We should be the ones telling others to love
one another. Some of us should not be
the one to be told to be patient. To
have temperance. We should be the ones
to tell the younger ones, “Hey, follow me as I follow Christ. Do what I do.
See how I love? See how patient I
am? See how virtuous I am? Be like me.”
And you’ll see that love comes first in the fruit of the spirit,
right? In the fruit of the spirit. But, in Second Peter, love came last. When you believe, you will work your way up
to love, because love is the greatest of all, right? If you love, you’ll fulfil the whole
law. The whole law. What would be your answer, just for you? Do you see anything you need to add? Or, do you still need faith? I hope not, because Peter wrote to
Christians. He wrote to people who have
received this like precious faith, right?
I
hope and pray that you take these last words at heart. You see how important they were to Peter. They’re still important for you and I. And, no these are not my last words to you,
because I’m not going to be taken yet, but these are the words from Peter to
you and I. My they bless you. May you
take them and put them to use, because it’s not the hearers, but the doers of
the Word. God bless you.
|
|
|
|
