PHOTOPHOBIA and AMNESIA
Based on a sermon preached atPCC by Pastor Jeff O’Neil on 19 May, 2002

“But he that lacketh these things isblind, and cannot see afar off,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
(2 Peter 1:9)

Someone was telling me that she had invited a friend along to the services andthe friend did come for a number of weeks, and then the friend stopped coming.And upon enquiry and being asked for reasons, the friend said, “Well thesermons always seem to be directed at me,” and, of course, she said that herfriend must have told the minister about her. Such is the power of the Word ofGod. Of course the friend hadn’t spoken to the pastor, to the minister, at all.But the Word of God is quick and powerful. And therefore her conscience hadbeen smitten and aggravated. Now, instead of preaching concerning a few thismorning, rather it is to embrace everybody. And would to God that everybodywould be saying, “Who told the preacher about me?” Not some of us, but all ofus, saying, “Who told the preacher about me?” Because I want to consider thismorning, in the light of membership and baptism and these few brethren seekingto join the church, what should be the attitude, and what should be the conductof all the members of the church. And, perhaps, provide a word of guidance tothose who are seeking membership and future membership of the body of Christ.And so, may we all have Lydia’sheart, whose heart the Lord opened to attend unto the things spoken of Paul.Her heart was opened to the Word that Paul taught and declared unto her. And soto our chapter.

Now, in Wales, this chapter is called in the Welsh language, y pethir,and that means “the things.” This chapter is given that title; because thatexpression, “the things,” is used six times in the first chapter, and fivetimes in the third chapter, and so it is called y pethir. Now weusually use this title, “the things,” for something that is nondescript,something that is miscellaneous, something that is indifferent; unimportantthings. They are just things. But the Apostle Peter, he uses it for the mostimportant and relevant features and subjects of the Christian faith.

As you read the chapter and as we go through it now in verse 3, for instance,he speaks about “all things,” that is, he is referring toeverything that pertains to life and to godliness. And therefore it is vital torealise what divine power has given unto us, says Peter. Divine power has givenall these things, and particularly the great and exceeding precious promises ofGod. Now all these things have been given to us and were in us by divine power.

And then in verse 8, he speaks of “these things.” Now he is referring to thelist of graces that are found in verses 4 through 7, where you have Peterexhorting them to all diligence in adding to your faith virtue, to virtueknowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patiencegodliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.So he is saying this: these are the necessaries, these are the requisites,these things are being given unto you; and you must keep them, you must addthem, you must accumulate them, in order to mature; that the Christian may bewell-rounded, that he may be well-balanced by having all these graces andvirtues in his or her life.

And then, in verse 9, he speaks of “these things” again. And he is referring tothe lack of these graces. If anybody lacks these graces, if they are deficientof them in their lives, it becomes obvious evidence of their state and of theircondition. But if these lovely virtues that are listed here are not easilyevidenced, or are not being promoted in the life of a Christian, of a believer,or of a church, then it is obvious evidence of the state and condition of thatpeople.

And then verse 10 speaks of “these things” again. And he is demonstrating thenecessity of imbibing these things; of taking these things in but not retainingthem within, but of doing them, of practising them. And by practising them, bymanifesting them, they will be evidences of your calling and of your election.For if they are not, then it brings into question whether you have receivedthis high calling of God, whether you are one of His elect, whether you arepartaker of the election of grace. And note how serious it is, my friends, inour walk before God and our walk before each other. Whether we are accumulatingthese graces and developing them; or whether we are lacking them, and remainingin the same position, we are not maturing, we are not improving, in theChristian faith.

And then in verses 12 and 15, he speaks of “these things” again. And so hesays, these things are so important, that he is taking pains to remind them,and indeed particularly in the light of his impending death. And you notice inverses 12, 13 and 15, he says, I put you in remembrance of them, he is keepingup the same point, he is bringing it home to bear upon their minds and upontheir consciences. I want you to remember this, I am going to die, he says, andthree times he insists, that you remember these things. Though you know them,he says,—and we all know them here,—though you know them, I want you toremember them.

Now, the Apostle, though he was one of the unlearned and ignorant fishermen, hewas very good at Mathematics. You find in verse 2, that he speaks aboutmultiplication and then, in verse 5, he teaches addition, adding up upon eachother the various graces that should hallmark every Christian. So he isspeaking about multiplication, he is speaking about addition. And thesevirtues, these things that he lists, they are not just deposited into your soulwhen you are converted, fully formed, fully matured. Yes, they are put there asseeds, the principles of grace work in us, and these virtues are planted in us.The seeds are, the propensity is, they are put in our souls, in embryonic formas it were, but they have to be nurtured, they have to be cultivated, they haveto be developed in our lives. So that there is industry involved, there isendeavour involved; cultivation on the part of the believer. For that is whatthe word “diligence” means in verse 5. He says, when you are adding, do itdiligently. It speaks of energy, spiritual energy, it speaks of spiritualendeavour that is expended; the strait gate is to be pressed into. TheChristian faith, my friends, is not a faith of passivity. We are not to bepassive in the things that God will work in us, we have to exert energy in thefaith, we have to work out our faith.

I like the comment of Spurgeon on Psalm 77 and verse 12, and it reads likethis, “I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.” Spurgeonsays this, A meditative man must be a talker, otherwise, he is a mental miser,a mill that only grinds for the miller, and that’s no good. Rather there is tobe this diligence, all diligence in activity, positive activity, not passivity.Neither is it to be a fitful employment. He exhorts here, “Giving all diligence,”not some diligence, but alldiligence. You see, the Christian is notto be lax, not to be spasmodic in his walk, not to be sporadic in his desire tomature. He is not to be indolent, he is not to be laid back, he is not to beindifferent in any way to these things in his attempt to accumulate, and todevelop, and to mature these graces, but he is to give all diligence. Addingwhere they are missing, strengthening them where they are weak, promoting themwhen there is an opportunity. Now, notice here, that Peter is not giving astrict order of addition, but he is exhorting to develop these virtues one uponanother, so the soul matures, and we become more after the image of ChristJesus who created us, more Christ-like. Now, Richard Steele, a Puritan, saysthis, “It is as much our duty to get the second grace as it was the first.” Andwithout our diligent co-operation, then God will leave it to our spirit withoutHis operation, and that’s when the trouble starts in the Christian life.

Now, someone may say to me, “Now, look, I am rather a weak Christian. I lookaround me, and I see in the congregation that there are some who seems verystrong, and they seem very positive about their doctrine; I am not like that, Iam just a weak Christian. And these things that you are saying, aboutdeveloping these things, I don’t seem to have a sense, I don’t seem to have theability to do these things.” Well, my friends, in your weakness, you must makeapplication to One who is Almighty, and who has promised this, to give “powerto the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength” (Isa40:29). He now draws you by promise. If you are feeling weak, then He will givestrength to those who have no might, and so increase your strength.

And another may turn to me and say, “Well, look, you never told me that theChristian life is like this. You never told me that it was sorrow andheartache. You never told me that it was affliction, and that chastening willcome into my life. Ever since I become a Christian, all my experience has beenchastening, and affliction and trouble and sorrow in my life. You did not tellme about these things, sufficient for me that I believe. I just want to have asimple faith, I just want to believe, I don’t want all these things. What’s theminimum that I would get to heaven upon?” My friends, think you there are twoways of salvation: one for the indolent, and one for the industrious? No, it isthrough much tribulation that you shall enter into the kingdom of God.

The Bible makes that plain, that you ought to “work out your own salvation withfear and trembling,” for it is God that willeth and doeth in your experienceand in your life (Phil 2:12–13). So then, we are to work at adding, we are towork at developing these graces. Now, that word “add” there, in the fifthverse, has a lovely connotation. It’s speaking either of a choirmaster wholeads the singing, or it’s speaking of a couple, perhaps, who going on to adance floor, they go first, and lead everybody else out. They have these thingsin weddings, sometimes they have these dances, and the bride and the groom,they are the first on the floor, and they dance and everybody then comes on tothe dance floor. That’s the meaning of that little word, “add”; it has thatconnotation. And, perhaps, that is why faith is first on thelist. It says, “add to your faith,” faith is the one that is ableto lead all the other graces in a beautiful unity unto the Lord. Faith is theleader of the others.

And then, in verse 8, he shows how that by abounding in all “these things” itwill not only display and evidence that you are fruitful, and that you arecalled and elected, in verse 10; but that if you practise these things, if youdo these things, then you will not fall. You see that it is a proviso, if youlike, that if you leave these things apart, then the danger is you’re going tofail and you’re going to fall. But if you practise these things, if they arefruitful in your life, then you will not fall; that is, falling into your oldsins from which you have been purged, as verse 9. It will prove that you arenot “barren” (v. 8), he says. Now the word “barren” means idle. Calvin saysthis, “Knowledge of Christ is an efficacious thing, it’s a living root whichbrings forth fruits.” So this is proof then, of being not barren or idle, itshows that you haven’t been indolent in pursuing and accumulating all thesegraces in your life, and that you’re working at it.

Now, remember that the Temple itself was built upon a threshing floor; yourecall, it was a place of labour, and your life is built upon a place oflabour, labouring to accumulate and to develop these graces that are of vitalimportance to prove that you are a child of God. But then he comes to it, “hethat lacketh,” but “he that lacketh these things,” he says, he “is blind, andcannot see afar off” and “hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”Now then, who is this? Well this is the kind of Christian who is at ease, whois negligent about holy things, who is backsliding, perhaps, and who ishardening in that position. And what he says about this person is this, that heis suffering not only from blindness, but with forgetfulness, with a badmemory. Now, to be without these things that are listed here, is to allow theold sins, the old nature that is opposite to these things, to rise in yourlife, and to surface in your life, and to reign in your life.Now if these things are not in you, what are the opposite aspects, is thequestion? What are the opposite of these things, then? Well, you see, it islack of faith, lack of moral goodness; ignorance, intemperance, impatience,ungodliness, un-kindness; and the opposite of charity, is, well, hate. I can’tsee that there is any middle ground. If you haven’t got love, then you hate,obviously. So, if this kind of Christian that is found in verse 9, is carryingon in his condition, then the opposite of this list of graces is evidenced inhis or her life.

1. Now, first of all, blindness. Now it is possible that not onlyan individual, but the church, can be stricken with this. A churchcan develop photophobia. Photophobia is an aversion to light. And it meansthis, you close your eyes at the light, you can’t stand the light, you closeyour eyes to it, you are blind to it. And you have these two effects in thechurch, and in the individual. This is exampled in Revelation 3:17, the churchof Laodicea. You see, the Apostle John is not writing to the world, he is notwriting to just the individual believer, he is writing to the church ofLaodicea, and he tells them some very forceful things. It is so forceful thatif preachers were to say the same things nowadays, people in the congregationprobably would leave, some of them at least. And he is looking at them, and heis saying this: You are rich, you are poor, you are miserable, you are blind;strong words he gives to the church, you are blind. And then he counsels them,to “anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Rev 3:18). That’sthe remedy, that’s the answer: you need this ointment upon your eyes. Now Lukewas a doctor, but John was chosen to pen the letter to the church in Laodicea.Christ is saying through John: “You need treatment, there’s something wrongwith you; your eyes need doctoring, your eyes need ointment, so that you willnot close your eyes to the light.” And that’s what that word “blind” in ourtext means, to close one’s eyes, or to feel with the hands. Because you can’tsee, you’re feeling with the hands. Now we have an expression, do we not, ofclosing our eyes to things we don’t want to know about. That there is anobstinacy inour hearts and in our minds that even though it is put to us, we don’t want toknow about it. And then, there is another expression, There is none so blind asthose who do not want to see; there is a stubbornness. It isobvious to others, but to the person, it is not obvious; and they are stubborn,they are refusing, and they act against it. Now, these are worldly expressionsand proverbs that are used, but epitomise a great truth. And it is exactly apicture of what a Christian or a church can develop, a kind of spiritualillness. And this is what Peter is saying, and in sympathy with John theApostle. He says, “You are shutting your eyes to the truth, you are blind tothe light, you are blind to the truth.” Now though, no doubt, they held theright doctrines, and they would speak about them, they had it in theory. But wemay theorise and speculate, as much as we like, but speculation must end inpractice. Sometimes when I think of Christ as a God-man, I think of ourselvesin that kind of expression, the God-man, that is, we have divinity and we havehumanity. And we can give divinity but we don’t give humanity in our dealingsone with another. So Peter is saying, you are shutting your eyes to the truth.

2. But he also points out another condition: they can’t see afar off. Now thisis a closing of the eyes, it can refer to the screwing up of one’s eyes, short-sightedness.Things that are close by, they are OK; but when you are looking at the broadpicture, squinting, even as that man who saw men as trees walking (Mk 8:24). Itis a kind of spiritual myopia. Now it is interesting, that expression “cannotsee afar off”; the Greek word there is myôpazô, from which the wordmyopia is taken, the medical condition of the eye. And so Peter is saying this,“You’ve got myopia; your eyes need adjusting, there’s a correction needed inyour viewing, in your gazing, in your seeing of things.” And so with theChristian, we can be terribly defective and short-sighted in our appreciationof what is happening in our own lives, and what is happening in the life of thechurch. Our eyes need adjusting, our spiritual sight, our spiritual eyes needenlightening, the spittle and clay, and touch of Christ is needed to heal ourinfirmity. We can have the sight to see the mote in our brother’s eye, but weare blind to the plank in our own. My two sons, they are entering into middleage, and they are as tall as me, much taller I think, and that’s why when I amlooking at them, I start teasing them, saying, “Ah, Ah, grey hairs, middle ageis coming, grey hair.” And recall Ephraim, when Ephraim looked in a lookingglass, and it says this, that he knew not that he had “grey hairs… here andthere” (Hos 7:9), that he could see the defects in others, he could see theimperfection in others, but he couldn’t see his own faults, he couldn’t see hisown sins. And so it is, my friends, with this blindness we are talking about,this spiritual myopia.

3. But then, he says there is this condition of forgetfulness, akind of amnesia, spiritual amnesia, forgetfulness, “forgotten that he waspurged from his old sins.” Oh, my friends, what ingratitude, what a state ofnegligence, to forget what Christ has done, to forget what His blood haseffected in your life, to forget that His blood has washed you and cleansed youfrom all the filthiness of your sin and your condition; to forget that, is itpossible? Is it possible? And to go on like that. Indeed, Calvin says, that theblood has not become a washing bath to us, that it may be defiled by our filth,making use of this, in such a way. To forget that you have been washed andcleansed from your filth, to forget that your old sins have been nailed toCalvary’s tree, and there the bleeding hands, and the bleeding side, and thebleeding feet of Christ testify to the work that He has done on your behalf.The blood and water flowed forth from His hands, the blood of forgiveness, theblood of pardon, the blood of reconciliation, the blood of the everlastingcovenant; the water and the washing of the regeneration of the Spirit of God,you’ve forgotten, have you? You’ve forgotten?

I don’t know if you’ve met anyone with amnesia, as they go on into old age. Itis not nice, and it rouses sympathy in the heart. When someone you loved isbeginning to fail, and the memory goes, then comes grieving and sadness. Theycan remember vividly things in their childhood, but things that you told themone minute before, they are gone, they’re forgotten. And it is so in thespiritual realm, my friends. Yes, you can remember things that are orthodox,you can remember things that are good, things that are essential, but inpractice, forget the reality and the experimental implication of pardonreceived, and pardon exercised. You not only received pardon, you have toexercise forgiveness yourselves. Spiritual amnesia!

When you read this list of things, and you know that there is a sphere in yourlife, where some of these things are not in operation, they’re not functioning,they have become redundant, or your position has so hardened,—what are yougoing to do about it? What are you going to do about it? Richard Steele writes,“Undone duty will undo your soul,” it will undo your soul. If these graces arenot worked out diligently then we are but graves, wherein the original seedswere planted and have no resurrection.

One of the hardest things from my own experience,—I am talking from my ownheart now,—one of the hardest thing in my experience in the Christian faithover forty years, is this thing of brotherly kindness. It’s one of the hardestthings that I have to wrestle with, and grapple with in my own temperament andnature. It’s such a hard thing, that all the other things are affected by it,all the other things that are in that list. Now we can be, as Christians, mostdisloyal, we can be most disobedient, we can be most disappointing, out ofcharacter with our profession. And we so easily take umbrage and we can cut andmaim each other, we can let each other down; we can be quick to retaliate, andwe can be slow to forgive, we can even misunderstand the best of motives. Youknow that Caesar received his wounds from the hands of his friends, not fromthe sword of his enemies. And there was one, who is greater than Caesar, whowas wounded in the house of His friend, even by His own familiar friend as theywalked and went up into the tabernacle of the Lord, even Christ Jesus. There isnothing more damaging, and destructive and destroying, and erosive to thespiritual well being of a believer’s soul, or to the life of a church, and thevitality of the church, than the lack of brotherly kindness.

Remember Stephen. There he is, before the Jews, to be stoned to death, and heis bearing testimony, going right over the history of the Jews. And he comes toMoses, and Moses supposed that his brethren should have understood that God, byhis hand, would deliver them, and as they strove together, he would set them atone again, “Sirs, ye are brethren, ye are brethren.” If that lack of brotherlykindness is missing in the church, or even declining, it freezes the grace thatfollows, charity—it cripples the grace that precedes, godliness—it fracturesthe family of God and divides the household of faith, and a house dividedcannot stand. Suspicion comes in without knocking, pride rents the best room,inflexibility and hardness sit at the head of the table. When brotherlykindness vacates his humble dwelling, then the head of the house will absentHimself. Christ will only dwell in Salem, not in Babel, that is, He dwellswhere there is peace, and not confusion.

To exercise brotherly kindness, there must be a brotherhood. Well, for abrotherhood, there must be a fatherhood. And can we generally pray and practisethis, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our dailybread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:9–12)? Can wepray that? For even if we pray it, does it pour easily from our lips? Listen toour Lord again, “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will yourFather [in heaven] forgive your trespasses” (Mt 6:15), there it is. We cancarry on in our Christian life, and we’re not exercising this forgiveness; ifwe are not exercising this forgiveness, then the Father has not forgiven anysin that we have committed. You may go on feeling OK in yourself, but if youare not exercising any forgiveness, your Father has not forgiven yourtrespasses.

Here’s another test. When there is a lack of this thing, this thing ofbrotherly kindness, then it leaves leanness in the soul. The joy isn’t therethat used to be there, there is leanness in the soul, there is dryness in theeye, there’s a hardness in the heart, there’s a sourness in the vein, there’s areluctance in the mind, and there is sharpness upon the tongue, and there iscoldness in the look to other Christians, and there is heaviness in the legsthat will not take us to repair the damage. The devil is causing mayhem inchurches throughout the world,—I mentioned this in the prayer meeting,—it is aseason of it, that churches are divided, ministries are being blighted becauseof this vacuum of brotherly kindness. We are under sovereign command myfriends, “Love ye one another.” “Ah, but you know what happened,…” someoneobjects; NO… “Love ye one another.” “Ah, but this sister or brother said….” NO…“Love ye one another.” It is a command, it’s not a promise, it is a command.“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar” (1 Jn 4:20).That’s a strong word, my friends, he is a liar, “for he that loveth not hisbrother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” And thisis the commandment that we have from Him, that he that loves God, loves hisbrother also, not in words, but in deeds. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, saysthis, “Don’t talk of love, walk in love” (cf. Eph 5:2). Thomas Adams writes,“Love sits at the door of the lips of many men’s lips, but has no dwelling inthe hearts.”

But, my friends, when these things abound, as are we taught here, when thesethings abound, then there is fruitfulness (cf. 2 Pet 1:8). Then, brotherlykindness is enlarged, and it becomes the cement that binds the whole churchtogether; it’s the leaven that vitalises the whole, it’s the fragrance thatperfumes and permeates the whole of the body of Christ. “Behold, how good athing it is” (cf. Ps 133:1), there it is again, “Behold, how good a (thing) itis, and how becoming well, Together such as brethren are in unity to dwell!”Oh, my friends, when that is the atmosphere, and the climate, and the environmentof the church of Jesus Christ, then it is easy toforgive, it’s easy to forget, and to cast any difference behind our backs. Andthen we imitate our blessed Master, and show that we are new creatures inChrist, that we are renewed by the Spirit of God, that we are renewed after Hisimage. And then we find it’s easy to be submissive to the Apostle’s word, whichhe writes in the first epistle, “And above all things have fervent charityamong yourselves: for charity covers a multitude of sins”(4:8; italics added). And that word means to stretch out, to be elastic, and ithas to be elastic to cover a multitude of sins. Oh, each one of us is a sinner,every day we sin, each one of us in our relationship to each other are sinners,and yet charity is elastic, has that elastic property, it can cover a multitudeof sins.

We are to walk in love, not talk of love. One step of our feet is worth morethan ten of our words; that we make that first move, that first step. And youmay say to me, “Well, it’s hard, where do I start, how can I begin? It’s soagainst my nature, and I’ve been standing on my dignity for years, and theother has been standing on his or her dignity for years, and there seems to bethis hardness and this confrontation. How can I start to exercise thisbrotherly kindness?” Well, it’s simple, and so simple that we forget it; andeven if we remember it, we are afraid to let faith attempt it. “God never callsfor a duty, but helps in it”(Richard Steele). We’re not to do it on our own, Hewill put graciousness in your mouths, He will put pleading in your eyes, Hewill put love in your heart, and the mountain that stands before us shall melt,shall become as a plain, and the crooked path shall be made straight. He willmake a way if you begin the way. The journey of a thousand miles begins at thefirst step. Therefore, we have to listen to Peter, and let faith takes thelead. Let faith lead the singing, let faith lead the dance. For when this iseffected, the soul will sing, and the spirit will dance before the Lord. Letfaith lead, it must be attended by faith, faith that can create this atmosphereof brotherly kindness.

Now, we will never stand off from our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whyis that, when we stand off from our brethren in the faith? See, even the elderbrother in the parable, he was piqued, he was jealous, yet the father taughthim to rejoice over the younger (Lk 15). Love has a reconciling nature, if wesay we have the love of Christ, if we say the Holy Spirit has shed abroad Hislove in our hearts, then love has a reconciling nature. Love will reconcile,while love will look on the things of others. How does the epistle end? Well,in the third chapter, in the 17th verse, he says this: “therefore, beloved,seeing ye know these things,” there it is again, these things, ye know them.And look at the words again, you know these things “before,” you’ve learntthem, you know them, I’m repeating myself and telling them to you. But he says,“beware”; “beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked,fall from your own steadfastness.” “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heedlest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12), you know these things and with that knowledge, myfriends, if you continue to stand in your own strength, then itis a fall. Pride comes before the fall, is the saying.

But how do we prevent that happening? How do we stop it happening to ourselves?Well, the very last words of the epistle tells us, “But grow in grace, and inthe knowledge of our Lord… Jesus Christ” (3:18). There it is, you are to growin grace, it is grace that is effective,—and in the knowledge of the Lord JesusChrist. My friends, let’s look into the record of our consciences, from thepastor to every quarter of the church, and read there the wickedness of ourhearts without God. We can turn the pages of our personal history, our personallibrary, and we are to take stock, to take account, and we are to determine, byHis grace, that we will rectify any ill. And we are enabled to say, “Well, I’msorry for what occurred. Come, let us forgive each other”; that we rectify anyill, that we recompense any injustice, that we have done. That we heal anybreach that we have noted, that we kiss any wound that we inflicted upon somedear soul; that the love of Christ may be seen and experienced, and the beautyof Zion shine forth. Oh, when we read these things, and we can, perhaps intheory, visualise them, oh, the harmony, the beauty, the wonder and theloveliness of the scene that is enacted before us. And this is incumbent uponevery member, and upon every new member that is coming into the church. If youcan start off in your dealings and affiliation to the body of Christ, if youcan start off with this attitude of exercising and maturing in these virtues, thenthe harmony of the church will be an advertisement of what the grace of God inChrist can accomplish in us. Oh, dear friends, the picture is lovely. Oh, thatyou could strive to accomplish it. What a testimony, what a witness of the loveof God in our midst. Amen.