Why I love 2 Peter

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Why 2 Peter Is About Jesus More Than False Teachers

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I don�t know why sometimes, you know, we talk and then can�t even say your name rightly, and you�re supposed to be hosting a radio show.

How does that work? Well, maybe one of these days, we�ll edit the shows. My only edit button really is �start over. What�s going on here in the NoCo world? I finished recording five videos for American Gospel Television.

Brandon Kimber, he did the first two American Gospels, and he wanted�I was in the second one, and he and I talked off-air, and we discussed a few things, and he said, �Why don�t you do Law Gospels So there�s five episodes.

I think you have to�maybe you get the first one for free, and then after that, you have to be a subscriber. I think it�s $5 .99 a month. Who else is on there? I don�t know. There�s�I guess you can get the two American Gospel shows.

There are other things. I think Cameron has got a Bible game, like a spelling bee for the Bible or something like that maybe. Kosti Hinn does some things about charismatic stuff, and I�m sure there are other people there.

My back was killing me that day, so I hope I can smile at least a little bit because it was really rough going, but I�m thankful to be able to do that. You can write me if you want, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

You can go to Israel with us if we ever end up going in 2022. That�s February 23rd. That�s the day we�re scheduled to go. Omaha Bible Church�s Pat Ebenroth and myself, we�ll be leading the deal. I think October 8th, 9th, and 10th this year at Omaha Bible Church, there�s going to be a conference, and the speakers will be J. V. Fesco.

I know you have heard of J. V. Fesco. He�s been on the show, No Compromise Radio. Matthew Barrett, I tried to get him on the show, but he won�t come on, and I�ll have to talk to him about that. Pat and I will be the speakers.

The four horsemen of the, I don�t know, something about Omaha. Omaha, I think, is supposed to get down to minus 29 below zero. That�s not even wind chill. Coming up later this week in my time. My time, it�s right now, February 13th, Saturday, 447.

I�m going to record a couple shows. I have an appointment in an hour to meet a young man to go over a few things spiritually, kind of counseling, discipleship, and then I�m off to the store to figure out what am I going to buy for things, I mean, for Valentine�s Day.

Now, if I went Thanksgiving shopping, you�d be thinking, �Man, that guy�s a good planner. But if I�m going shopping for Valentine�s Day, you�re not thinking, �I�m such a good planner. And by the way, it seemed like all these holidays, or many of these holidays, are just holidays to, just like put pressure on men to make us feel guilty that we can�t get a good present or come up with something, I don�t know, romantic or whatever.

I love my wife dearly. We�ve been married for 31 years. Coming up on 32, I think I�ve, you know, what do you do after 32 years? I�m talking today about, obviously, nothing, but I�d like to now start talking about 2 Peter.

Peter’s Ministry in Acts and 1 Peter Centers on Christ

2 Peter is a book that many people think is about false teaching, and it is. Many people think it�s about godly living in the end days, and it is. But it is mainly, primarily, ultimately, a book about Jesus.

And you can read that in the first verse, and in the last couple verses, bookend, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. And of course, you can imagine Peter, the author, being with Jesus for 3 years. And of course, he was always named at the top of the list of apostles, even in the innermost circle, Peter, James, and John.

When you read Peter in 1 Peter and in Acts, you will see the exact same thing that you see in 2 Peter. It is just a recurring theme for Peter to talk about Jesus, obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with his blood, 1 Peter chapter 1.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3. Verse 7 and 8 may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. He talks about the revelation of Jesus that is going to bring grace in verse 13. He talks about the precious blood of Jesus in verse 19 of 1 Peter.

He talks about Jesus who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And he kept entrusting himself to the one who judges justly. He, Jesus himself, bore our sins in his body on the tree.

Everything is about Jesus for Peter. Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he may or might bring us to God. Peter was obviously captured and converted and intercepted and made alive and regenerated.

All pretty much synonyms of the Lord God saved Peter. And I really, when you look at the book of Acts, of course, you could think, you know, early on he's talking about Peter, Luke is, and then later he's talking about Paul.

But when Peter talks, it's about Jesus. Men of Israel hear these words. That's Acts chapter 2 verse 22. What do you think the next word's going to be? Jesus. That's right. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

When Peter talked, he talked about Jesus. Chapter 3 of Acts, glorified his servant whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, killing the author of life whom God raised from the dead.

That's chapter 3. So chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, it's the same thing. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man standing before you as well.

In chapter 5, it should not surprise us, and it says in verse 30, the God of our fathers, this is Peter preaching, raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at the right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

What's my point? The point in what I'm saying is this, that's the language of Hebrews 8 .1, by the way. Now the point in what I'm saying is this, we have such a high priest. What the point that I'm saying is this, for this particular show, this show is that Peter, in the book of Acts, in 1 Peter, in 2 Peter, loved to talk about Jesus.

Christless Sermons and the Need to Preach Christ Crucified

Therefore, when you go to 2 Peter, I don't want you to think, oh, well, it's about this, it's about moral living, it's about avoiding sensual living, it's about anticipating eagerly that God will take care of the false teachers and everything will be made right and the earth is going to be burned up, it's all going to start over.

Those things are all true, and those things are all in 2 Peter, but the dominating thing in 2 Peter is it's about Jesus. And sermons today, sadly, are often Christ-less. This is my theme, this is what I'm after as a pastor, this is what's my hobby horse, is I can't take sermons that are Christ-less.

Moralistic TED Talks, frankly, I despise them, I loathe them, I don't necessarily loathe the people that give them because sometimes they just have not been trained and have not thought about it. If the people know better and then do it anyway, well, that's another story.

Here's an actual letter I received at No Compromise Radio, and I will change the name of the lady who wrote it, and she writes to me, hello, Mike, that's where we went off track right there, that's Reverend, sorry, hello, Mike.

We have the dearest, sweetest pastor, and we love him. Here comes the next word, what do you think it is? But, his preaching is more like a glorified Bible study. From the pulpit, he teaches us how to outline a chapter, how many times a Greek word appears in the New Testament, what Calvin or Beuys had to say about the passage.

He doesn't bring Christ. I love all the things he teaches us, but I need to be reminded that I am forgiven, that Christ loves me, that I will not lose my salvation despite my remaining sin. What can I say to my pastor, if anything?

I would never want to hurt his feelings, as it is apparent that he spends a lot of time preparing sermons. Thanks for any advice, Cindy. But for Peter, that's not the case. That's not the case for Peter, and obviously, it's not the case of Peter for many reasons.

What we have recorded by Peter is inspired by the Spirit of God, and from a subjective perspective, Peter knew what it was like to experience such great forgiveness, and forgiveness for all kinds of sins, including even denying Jesus, and he understood that very thing.

When it comes to 2 Peter, it should remind all of us that it is important to talk about Jesus, because if you don't, you're going to sound like a Roman Catholic. Let's just say it the way it should be told, and that is directly, plainly, simply.

Everything that you have to do, everything that you have to be, everything that you have to become. I mean, you turn back the clock several hundred years, and you think about Luther, and you know what?

While Jesus might be mentioned on occasion, it just turns into do, do, do, do, do. That's what Luther would say, you know what? Probably, if he went to some of these seeker-sensitive churches, and we put him in a time transport kind of thing, he'd probably think, while the lighting's better, and there's no stained glass, he'd probably think he was still back at a Roman Catholic church, right?

And is it really enough to give people law the whole time, and then the last minute, try to, as T. David Gordon says, rescue the sermon? We need to make sure that we follow what's going on here with Peter, and preach Christ in him crucified.

The Authority of Peter’s Apostolic Writings

Spurgeon said, a sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. Know Christ in your sermon, sir, then go home and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

And dear congregation that's listening, dear listeners, this could be said for those that teach Bible studies, Sunday schools when you're allowed to have them, Bible Institute classes, conferences, home Bible, you know, family time.

Spurgeon, leave Christ out? Oh, my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ's name in it, it ought to be his last. Certainly the last any Christian ought to go to hear him preach, but you've got churches and they're filled to the gills, overflowing, because people are gonna go get little pep talks.

A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and crime and execution. Wow. However grand the language, it will be merely much ado about nothing if Christ be not there.

And I mean by Christ, not merely as example and the ethical precepts of his teaching, but as atoning blood, his wondrous satisfaction made for human sin and the grand doctrine of believe and live. Spurgeon's right.

Spurgeon's right. You do not want to have Christless sermons. Epistles are filled with Christ and everything about our preaching should be as well. Think about what the Holy Spirit does. He bears witness to Christ, right?

He bears witness to Christ. Does he bear witness to a Christless sermon? What would he be there bearing witness to? I'd like to have the Spirit of God helping, assisting, driving the point home, but he isn't going to be pleased to do that if he came to bear witness about Jesus, and we're not talking about Jesus.

It was Peter's joy to talk about Jesus, and therefore, you want the hobby whores for no compromise radio, and it is Christ-centered preaching. I also love 2 Peter because it's authoritative. There's so many books competing for our attention now.

Farmers, Almanac, and websites, and mainstream media, other religions, how-to books, college campuses, they're all giving us these, you know, statements of fact and not even true. Here it says in 2 Peter 1 .1, Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

That is apostolic authority. You ought to say to yourself, Jesus sent him, and therefore, should these words be in red? That's a good question. Should these words of 2 Peter be in red? You're like, what?

R-E-D, red, not R-E-A-D. That's called tired. That's called super tired. I need to edit that out, Spencer. Make sure you take that out. Ever think about red-letter editions of the Bible, the words of Jesus in red, so you could pick them out really easily?

Now, one hand, I don't really mind those, because if I'm looking for the words of Jesus, then it helps me. I mean, I have to rely on the acumen, theological acumen of the red-letter people, right? Because if you read John 3, which words did Jesus say, and which one didn't he?

Did John say this, or did Jesus say it, right? The Holy Spirit doesn't tell us, oh, we have to study that ourselves, but red-letter editions, you know what? Lots of times, create something that's not true, and that is the words of Jesus are more important than other words.

Now, if you say something like this, Jesus' words are more important than Paul's words, I would say the answer is yes. Whatever Jesus said was important, and what Paul said, right? Not written down here, any books of the Bible, but just what he said, whose words would be more important?

But the words that he wrote down, inspired by the Spirit of God, are just as divine as Jesus' words, correct? Correct. Jesus' words and Paul's words, or Peter's words, that we have in the canon, they're all inspired by God, they're all divine.

There was a man, and he was thinking about this verse, Luke 22, 20. His last name was Klopft, and he read, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which I shed for you. And, on June 9, 1899, this editor of Christian Herald thought, based on those words, you know what, I should probably write, we should probably print a Bible with Jesus' words in red.

Dr. Thomas DeWitt Talmadge said, it could do no harm, and it most certainly could do much good. And therefore, published in 1901, the Red Letter Bible, fully rubricated, they call it. That's kind of fun.

Fully rubricated. And he published a lot of Bibles that way, and he wrote later, modern Christianity is striving zealously to draw near to the great founder of the faith, setting aside mere human doctrines and theories regarding him.

It presses close to the divine presence to gather from his own lips the definition of his mission to the world and his own revelation of the Father. The Red Letter Bible has been prepared and issued in a full conviction that it will meet the needs of the student, worker, and searchers after truth everywhere.

The Red Letter Bible. Peter, an apostle, a sent one, formally, by Jesus, commissioned by the risen King, Peter saw the resurrected Jesus, and he writes this under the inspiration, God breathed out these words through the pen of Peter, and they should all be in red.

There's nothing different. And when people say, well, Jesus said this and Paul didn't, or Paul said this and Jesus didn't, they're not helping themselves out very much. Peter is called here, Simeon Peter, kind of a little more Hebrew, Simeon than Simon.

And Simeon or Simon is a shorthand for Samuel, God hears. And Peter here is writing, and he calls himself an apostle, a servant and apostle. And he, of course, is a servant like anybody else, is a servant of the Lord Jesus, anybody who's a believer and wants to do what he wants to do.

But he also is sent, and that means he has authority. If Jesus sends a messenger and says, these are the exact words, then we have to say to ourselves, there is authority there. So I like looking at books that have authority, and of course all the books of the Bible do, but that's why we come to such a book, because it has authority.

People say, well, it's too close to Jude, I don't know if I could trust it. No, no, it is apostolic, and therefore it has authority. There's not enough similarities to 1 Peter, there's some linguistic things here, and some of the expressions he uses in 1 Peter, they're not in 2 Peter, and there's some stylistic things, and I don't know if we could trust this book.

No, no, it's authoritative. And I love studying 2 Peter because it talks about Jesus and it's authoritative. And then lastly, I love it because it's got gravity to it. It's the last will and testament of Peter.

The Weight of Peter’s Farewell Words in 2 Peter

When you read Paul, and Paul is talking about, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering in the time of my departure has come, I've fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I've kept the faith, henceforth there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his appearing.

Therefore, when you read 2 Timothy, you're thinking, wow, this is weighty. When people talk on their deathbed, it's important, and here, Peter says, Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, this is chapter 1, verse 12, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have, I think it is right as long as I am in the body to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my flesh will be soon, as our Lord Jesus made clear to me, and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

While Jesus is coming soon, Peter's going to leave soon, Peter's going to die soon, and he wants to stir up these Christians, and he wants them to live pure lives and holy lives, and these deathbed words remind me, oh, this has got some gravity to it.

So my name's Mike Ebendroth, read 2 Peter today, that's my assignment for you, you'll see that it's talking about Jesus everywhere, it's authoritative, and it's got this gravity. So we'll talk more next time about the book of 2 Peter.

My name's Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio, you can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

Program Sign-Off and Station Information

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.