Jet Tour of Second Peter

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Well, good evening! I would like to invite you to open your Bibles to 2nd
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Peter as we take a jet tour through Jet Peter tonight, through Jet Peter and through 2nd
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Peter as well. You know, how many of you, well
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I don't want to give it away, how many of you have ever been in a Christian bookstore? How many of you listen to Christian radio?
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How many of you watch Christian TV? Is there such a thing as Christian TV? I'm just asking.
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Well, it's hard. We like to think ours is pretty good. But I watched a little bit of news the other day and saw an interview and I looked this book up, this author, up on Amazon .com.
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Her name is Victoria Osteen. She is the wife of Joel Osteen, pastor of the largest church in America.
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And her new book is called Love Your Life, Living Happy, Healthy and Whole.
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This is a description of the book. Do you ever feel like your life is moving at the speed of light?
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Are you constantly trying to keep up with all of your commitments and responsibilities? In this day and age when modern communication and technology cause our lives to move faster than ever, many people struggle to strike a balance between all the segments of their lives.
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Listen to how she describes the segments of our lives. Family, friends, career, social obligations and self.
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This is a Christian book written by, as we'll see here, the co -pastor of Lakewood Church, America's largest church.
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And she says that she understands intimately how day -to -day responsibilities can pile up and at times feel overwhelming.
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As a wife and mother, she sets the tone for her household and acts as a role model for her family.
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As a minister, she reaches out to an enormous community of people who look to her for guidance, strength, wisdom and encouragement.
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She knows as well as anyone that operating in so many different roles can be extremely demanding, yet she has managed to find balance, living her life in the unforced rhythms of grace.
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If you ask her, she'll tell you that she loves her life and she wants you to love your life too.
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No matter where you are in your life, no matter what responsibilities you may carry, you can find peace, balance and enjoyment in every area of your life.
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But it all starts with you. Listen to this carefully.
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You have more power inside you than you realize. All you have to do is learn to tap into what you already have.
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Does this sound remotely Christian to you? I would think that this is the latest by, what's the guy's name who, he's always on Oprah.
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The guy from the, yeah, I mean it sounds like it could be Deepak Chopra. You know, you have the power inside of you.
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All you have to do is learn to tap it. We're connected to the universe, you know, all that nonsense he talks about.
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It goes on. As you begin to recognize your own abilities and influence and use them in healthy ways, all the other areas of your life will fall into order.
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In Love Your Life, the name of the book, Victoria shares from her personal life experiences and her journey of faith, faith, the lessons she's learned that have made her the woman she is today.
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As you read, you'll feel like you're in a conversation with a trusted friend. As Victoria shows you how to tap into all that God has given you to live effectively, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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You'll read about people who have accomplished incredible things by overcoming their fears and people who have changed the world around them by simply recognizing their own value.
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A life well lived does not come easily. You have to set out for it, look for it and make it happen.
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Love Your Life shows you how to turn the challenges of each day into opportunities to love and appreciate all that you are.
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Again, does that sound Christian? No mention of the Bible, no mention of sin, repentance, worship of God.
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What happened to the concept of denial of self? But that's really a reflection.
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If we were to look, if we could somehow hold up, and I wouldn't recommend this, if we could hold up all of evangelicalism and we could put a mirror right in front of it, this would reflect accurately what is out there and masquerading as the church today.
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It is as shallow as it is at least non -biblical and usually unbiblical.
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So once again, please turn your Bible to 2 Peter. Unlike Love Your Life, this book is timeless.
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It is a classic. In fact, I would say it gets better and more relevant with age.
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Why? Well, just think as we go through here tonight, compare what
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I just read with what Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote. This is a timely book, a vital book for our times.
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As with 1 Peter, when he was writing to those churches in Asia Minor, modern day
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Turkey, when he was encouraging them knowing that persecution was going to come, and he told them how to live in the face of persecution.
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In 2 Peter, the persecution was already there. Nero was the
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Caesar, the ruler of the Roman Empire, and he was persecuting the church with abandon.
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In fact, in a short period of time, Peter himself was going to be put to death for the cause of the gospel.
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And in the midst of this persecution, with the government hunting down and killing Christians and even using them as human torches, using
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Christians as sport, what did the Holy Spirit through Peter want to communicate to the church?
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What was the urgent message of the day? Did he tell them,
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I warned you people in my first letter that this was coming? I don't know what you guys were thinking, why didn't you listen to me?
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Did he say to them, listen, this empire is evil, so I'm going to lay out the keys to taking over the government.
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Did he incite a holy rebellion? Was his message in 2 Peter, I told you it was coming, run to the hills, take off, flee for your lives, protect yourselves.
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What message did God have for a church under physical assault?
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Message is really quite simple. 2
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Peter is based on knowledge, on knowing the truth. You say knowledge, the world's coming after the church, people are being put to death.
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And Peter writes about the importance of knowledge? What was he thinking?
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Well, let's consider it this way. Let's say the church today was under great persecution, let's say your life was in danger even if you came here tonight.
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What's the worst thing that can happen? Die and go to heaven, that's not so bad.
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So is it unreasonable then for Peter to say, listen, I don't need to write these people and say, run to the hills, because I know if they die, if they belong to the
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Lord, they're going to heaven. That's not the issue. The issue is how am I going to make sure that the church is protected once I'm gone?
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Not protected physically, but protected spiritually. How do
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I in effect set up walls, parameters, barriers to protect the church from the onslaught of false teaching that is going to come?
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There is something worse for the church than death, and that is false doctrine, false teaching.
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It's a shocking concept, isn't it? Worse than death, to be more feared than death.
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And tonight as we go through 2 Peter, I want to give you two commands, two commands so that you will be equipped to live out your faith in a hostile world.
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Two commands that when you follow them, when you listen to what Peter has to say here, that you will be equipped, that you will be protected from false teaching.
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Two commands. The first one is, you must know the truth. You must know the truth about Christianity.
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You must know the gospel. You must be equipped with the word. I'm going to give you three truths actually, so you must know the three truths.
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Commentator Hebert says this, the words know or knowledge occur three chapters of 2
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Peter, right? Sixteen times in 2 Peter. Do you think he had a message for them?
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Do you think knowledge was important? Six times it is in the intensive form meaning full knowledge.
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Three short chapters, sixteen times. A .T.
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Robertson said this, and I had to use this quote because I've always wondered what the source of this was, and here it is.
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A .T. Robertson said, I call the second epistle of Peter the true Christian science or knowledge.
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That's what science is, knowledge. In contrast with the false so -called
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Christian science of the apostates and of Mrs. Eddy, Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, whose
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Christian science is neither science nor Christian. I was always wondering where that came from.
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There it is right there. It's neither science nor Christian. Amen. But the
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Christian faith demands knowledge of the truth. How many people do you know that say,
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I'm a Christian? Probably quite a few. We live in an area where Christianity is allegedly the leading religion.
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But if you go to those same people and you ask them, well, okay, you're a
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Christian. Well, what does it mean to be a follower of Christ? What are you going to hear?
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And the answer is you have no idea what you're going to hear because they have no idea what they're talking about. They're going to give you all kinds of nonsense, and it may just be something like, well,
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I go to church and it may be something worse. But you can't possibly be a
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Christian without knowing what that entails. How can you be a
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Christian if you don't know what the gospel is? I'm a Christian, but I don't know the gospel.
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Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea of me. I don't watch a lot of Christian TV, but the other night I was kind of, you know, how you can pull up, for those of you who are more sanctified than me, you wouldn't know this, but you could pull up a menu of all the things that are available on TV.
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So I pulled up this menu one night, and I saw a TV show that I knew was going to be extremely bad
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Christian television. So I thought, you know, I'll record it and watch it later. Sorry.
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The female preacher was telling the audience, and she really was no preacher.
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She was sitting in a chair, you know, and it was kind of like a fireside chat, you know, more than a preaching thing.
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But she was telling the television audience that they needed to make sure that when they went out and spread the gospel, that they were giving the real gospel, the real good news.
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Interesting how she defined it. Because she said, you don't need to tell people that they're bad.
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You need to tell them that God loves them, that God will meet them where they are.
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Now, by a show of hands, can somebody tell me in the
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New Testament where we would find a gospel preacher who says, listen, you're good just the way you are, and God will meet you where you are.
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Like, can anybody show me that verse? A passage maybe? It doesn't exist.
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John the Baptist came in, and he said what? Repent. Jesus came on the scene, and he said what?
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Repent. When Paul preached the gospel, did he say, you know what? It doesn't really matter what you do.
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God loves you anyway. Repent. You have to repent. She wasn't going to say that.
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Because her concept is what? That there's no repentance necessary. Repent from what? From being a good person?
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You're good the way you are. God loves you anyway. You don't need to repent. Someone's not preaching the real good news.
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Someone's not giving the real gospel. It's not Jesus and the apostles who have a false gospel.
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It might be that woman. The Christian faith is a faith that demands intellectual assent to certain facts.
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There is a content, there are informational data that you must know in order to be a
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Christian. And you can't just know it. It can't just be a list of things that you have memorized. It must be something that you believe.
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Something that you've internalized. Something that has become a part of you. What do you have to know to be a
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Christian? I could spend weeks on that. But quickly, if I was going to say, what do you have to know to be a
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Christian? What do you have to believe to be a Christian? You have to know about the holiness of God. You have to know about the sinfulness of man.
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You have to know that that creates a gap that no man can naturally close. And that God, in his divine providence and in his love, sent his son,
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Jesus Christ, to be our substitute. To be both God and man. 100 %
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God, 100 % man. To live a perfect life, die a substitutionary death, to be raised on the third day.
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You have to believe all of that in your heart. And this idea of no repentance.
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You have to repent. You have to understand that it is sin that has caused that chasm between you.
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You have to repent of your sin. You have to ask for forgiveness. There's no other way to be saved.
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That is good news because you can't do it on your own. It's what God does inside of you.
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You have to know those things. Christianity is not devoid of content. So with that as introduction, let's talk about the truths that Peter instructs his readers of.
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The first truth. You must know that salvation is of the Lord. That was a long intro.
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Salvation is of the Lord. Look at verse 1, chapter 1.
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Salvation is of the Lord. Now, I'm going to move really quickly.
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That verb received is a fascinating one. Because it means that, or it describes something that comes to someone always apart, always apart from their own efforts, by divine will.
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That's a great verb. You say, well, see, they had to receive it. And then you look at it further and you go, wait a minute.
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It's apart from their own efforts. It's by the grace of God, His will, not the will of the person who received it.
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So that faith is received by an act of divine providence. Now when you get that faith, what happens?
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You have to intellectually assent to the gospel. You have to believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
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You have to confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, as Romans 10, 9 would say. But look at how
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Peter continues. Verses 2 and 3. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge, there's that word, we're going to see it frequently, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
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Lord. Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge, the intensive form of knowledge, of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
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Peter says that the grace and peace of God are extended to believers in and within the knowledge of God and Christ.
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You cannot experience the unmerited favor of God without knowing the truth about God. You can't be an object of His grace and mercy and not know about this
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God. You can't say that you're a Christian and be unaware of anything about Him.
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You cannot experience the peace that comes with salvation without knowing the truth of the gospel.
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Paul describes it as the peace that surpasses all understanding. How do you have that? Because you've trusted completely in the
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God of the universe. Look at verse 3. God has granted believers true knowledge.
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I describe that as intensive. Freiberg defines it this way. In the New Testament, it is used especially of intensive religious and moral knowledge.
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What one comes to know and appropriate through faith in Christ. You have a true knowledge, you recognize the world,
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God and yourself as you truly are, not as you previously once thought of or how you previously perceived the world.
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Apart from the salvific work of God, apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit, it is though you spent your entire life before this, wandering around in a library.
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Now all the truth of all of creation is all around you, but you can't read the books.
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Matter of fact, you can't even pull the books off the shelf. You are dead in your sins and trespasses. Nothing means anything to you.
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It is absolutely useless. But when you are regenerated, when you are brought to spiritual life, you are granted true knowledge.
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And suddenly, you have everything pertaining to life and godliness.
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You can pull those books off the shelves as it were. You can open the word of God and you can understand them.
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All of creation makes sense. You look around you and you no longer see chaos or you no longer see order and pretend that it is chaos and you can grasp what is going on because God has opened your eyes.
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After regeneration, you have the capacity to grasp spiritual truths.
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Mark Dever describes the fact that salvation is of the Lord this way. He describes salvation as not self -generated, not self -based and not self -sustained.
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What is he saying? He is saying you didn't cause it. It wasn't about you in the first place and you cannot keep it.
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It is entirely of God. As Peter says, salvation is the result of his divine power,
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God's divine power extended through his call and guaranteed by his gift of everything pertaining to life and godliness.
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A Christian needs nothing more than the Holy Spirit, the word of God and a solid church body.
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That is what we need. Everything else extra. That is the first truth.
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Second truth. Salvation changes you. First is salvation is of the Lord. Second, salvation changes you.
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Look at verses 5 to 9. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence, knowledge, knowledge again and in your knowledge, self -control and in your self -control, perseverance and in your perseverance, godliness and in your godliness, brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness, love.
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For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short -sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
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Let me ask you another question. Do you ever doubt your salvation? Is there ever a time in your life when you're struggling with issues and you think, you know,
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I don't even know if I'm saved? I look at what I do, like Paul in Romans 7. How do
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I do this? I don't do the things that I want to do and the things I don't want to do, I do. And Paul hit it right on the head.
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You know what it brings about? Doubt. You know why we have doubt? Because we sin.
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Because we focus on ourselves. Look at how knowledge finds its way onto that list.
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Diligence, faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self -control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love.
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Simply put, if we're to look at that list and we're to say that's sanctification, that's growth in Christ, that is what the
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Christian life should look like. You know, you want to know if you're a Christian, look at those things. He tells us and he says, are they growing, are they increasing in your life?
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But you cannot grow in these areas of sanctification without growing in knowledge.
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How do we grow in knowledge? How do we grow? The Word?
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Anything else? I mean, if you want to grow in knowledge, what better is there than the Bible? Nothing. You need to read it, hear it, talk about it, put it on your forehead, go to bed wearing it.
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You need to be submerged in the Bible. We need to be students of God's Word. And such study is not mere intellectual pursuit.
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We're not out to just get information. What happens is the Holy Spirit uses that knowledge to transform our lives, to transform our thinking, to change the way we live.
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It's good to think about, am I saved or not? It's good to measure your own life.
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It's good to ask ourselves, do I see growth in these areas? In fact,
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I think that maybe people who are completely indifferent to that, who never examine themselves, it could be doubtful if they're even saved.
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Each of us need to examine ourselves and determine if we're in the faith. And may
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I suggest that since this is a direct implication of Peter's writing, this idea of knowledge impacting our lives, if you see no growth, if you see no sanctification, if you see no change in your life, then there are very few possibilities.
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The first possibility is that you're not saved. The second one is that you're not diligently setting about gathering more knowledge.
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Your intake of the Word is deficient. You are starving yourself spiritually.
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You say you want to grow, but you're not willing to take the proper diet in in order to guarantee growth.
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It is the Word of God that cuts to our true intentions. It is the Word of God that reveals our sinfulness, and it is the
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Word of God that is used by the Holy Spirit to conform us into the image of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. First truth, salvation is of the Lord.
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Second, salvation changes you. You cannot be the same person once God has brought you to spiritual life.
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Third truth, Scripture illumines you, enlightens you, it gives you knowledge, makes you smarter, dare
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I say. Look at verse 19 of chapter 1. So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
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You know, if we were to turn off all the lights in this building, and I'm not suggesting anybody do that, but if we were to turn off all the lights and just put one candle in the middle, what would we eventually all do?
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We'd probably all wind up huddled around that candle looking at it and talking around that or whatever, but we'd all somehow wind up around it.
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Christians are drawn to Scripture like a moth to the flame. Peter tells us that Scripture reminds us of things that we already know.
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It illumines things that we already know. It brings to mind things that we have already learned, but that's good, as we're going to discover.
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Look at verses 12 to 15, 2 Peter 1 verses 12 to 15. Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them.
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It's a good thing to be reminded of the truth and have been established in the truth, which is present with you.
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Verse 13, I consider it right. As long as I am in this earthly dwelling, as long as I am alive, he says, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our
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Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure, you will be able to call these things to mind.
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It's like, listen, I'm going to hammer some truths home to you people. And you know what? After I'm gone, you're going to remember it.
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These are vital truths that he's giving, and there are things that we need to be reminded of now. Over and over and over again, we need to be reminded.
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Why? Because over and over and over again, we are going to be assaulted by false teachers, spouting false doctrine, and we need to be equipped, ready, prepared.
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We forget things. Intentionally, unintentionally, we forget things.
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But the word of God is able to remind us of what we already know. Frequently here after a sermon, that was a good reminder of, or I was convicted of.
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And it's not like that person didn't know that, but they need to be encouraged. They need to be pushed in that way.
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Peter says that scripture, talking about its illuminating power, how for us, it just brings things to mind that we need to be focused on.
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God can use the word, his word, to illumine our minds, to bring into focus things that we hadn't even been thinking about.
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But most importantly, I think, and really one of the central points of this whole book,
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Peter says that scripture is more reliable than experience. And he brings that home in a really powerful way because he describes his own experience.
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In my mind, probably one of the, if not the greatest experience that any mere mortal will ever have.
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When he was enabled on the Mount of Transfiguration to see the power of Jesus Christ as worthy, the glory of Christ revealed.
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And he describes that a little bit. And he says, listen, in verse 19, we have the prophetic word made more sure, made more sure than what?
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Than what he just described, the greatest experience ever. And when you compare that to what people do,
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I mean, I don't even want to see, you know, people who watch
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Christian TV because you're all probably more sanctified than me. But when you listen to what those people talk about, dreams, premonitions, intuition, things in the white spaces, things that never existed,
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I mean, on and on and on, you know, word from the Lord, however they want to describe it. I remember once, for those of you who don't know,
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I used to work in a jail. And I remember once there was a little group, I was working in this area and the inmates were supposed to be working on different things, doesn't really matter.
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But I mean, they always had about 50 percent more inmates than they could possibly use. So, you know, there were some inmates off to the side.
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They weren't causing any problems, but they were like sitting in this closet like area. And I noticed they had
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Bibles. So just walked up. Now, I'm not allowed to kind of preach the gospel to them or whatever, but I thought
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I'd see what they're up to. And I said, hey, what are you guys doing? Well, you know, so and so here just had a dream last night and we're trying to interpret it.
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I said, well, you know, that's very interesting. But I have a suggestion. You guys have Bibles. Maybe that's more reliable.
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Maybe we should study that instead. And I took them right to this passage. And they said, you know, what were they supposed to say?
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Thank you very much. That's what they did say, of course. And then I left and they probably went back to talking about dreams.
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But imagine the amount of time that people waste speculating about what is true, speculating about things they cannot possibly know.
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And yet we have the word of God given to us so that we can know what's true. Three truths that you must know.
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Salvation is of the Lord. Secondly, salvation changes you. Third, Scripture illumines you.
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Second command for tonight. You must guard against error. You must guard against false doctrine, against false teachers.
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John Calvin said that our hearts are idol factories. You know, we think, oh, I'd never fall for that.
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I'd never go for that. Well, you know what? Each of us has a flaw in his or her doctrine somewhere.
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And if we have a slightly wrong view of God, even just 1 % off, we have a wrong view of God.
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We need to repent of that. How are we going to do that? We have to study.
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We have to know. But when we talk about these false teachers, they're much worse than that.
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Much worse than that. How do I know that we have wrong views of God? Because when
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I talk to people, I hear words like this. Worry. Wish.
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Struggle. Addiction. Depression. Hope. Hope? Yeah. I hope this happens.
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I'm concerned about this. Those aren't sinful necessarily, but if it's how you spend your time focused on issues, then maybe you don't have a right view of God's sovereignty.
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Maybe you're not fully resting on the fact that he's your father, that he loves you, that he has a perfect plan for you because he has called you to himself.
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It doesn't mean that we can't struggle sometimes with all the ramifications of life, but we need to trust him fully.
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And when we worry, we're saying, I don't trust God fully. Tough. Peter wrote this letter to exhort his readers to know the truth, and he also wrote it to protect them from false teachers, those who would teach error.
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Now, what are the characteristics of false teachers? I'm going to go through these quickly. I have a list of nine that I stole from Simon Kistemacher, and note well,
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I'm going to underline this. Not every false teacher is going to exhibit all or even most of these characteristics, but they will exhibit at least one of them.
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First, false teachers reject Christ and his gospel. They reject the gospel of Jesus.
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Look at chapter 2, verse 1. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
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Now, the past tense, where it says, also arose among the people, indicates that this is a reference to false prophets among the ancient
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Israelites. But Peter is warning of a time to come, of a future time, when false teachers will come into the church.
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And notice how he says there that they're going to secretly introduce destructive heresies.
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That verb, secretly introduce, means to bring in something that becomes an addition. Let me give an example.
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There's a group, to which I used to belong, that says they have another testament of Jesus Christ.
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They're not saying the Bible is necessarily wrong. They're just going to bring another truth alongside of it, an additional truth.
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That's what Peter's talking about here. Maybe it's not necessarily a book.
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Maybe it's some deed, some new thing that you have to do to get to heaven.
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Or maybe it's something that's been stricken out. Maybe you don't have to repent. Maybe it's just God is love and that's all
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God is. It can be quite subtle, as subtle as telling you that being baptized as a baby, going to church on Christmas and Easter, attending confession and taking communion is enough to merit heaven.
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After you spend a little time in purgatory, false teachers reject the sufficiency of the death of Christ.
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In fact, they deny him. They deny the sufficiency of the gospel because they will always add or subtract something.
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You'll either get the gospel plus or gospel light, but they will not give the gospel.
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Secondly, they repudiate Christian conduct. They repudiate
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Christian conduct. Verse two, many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of truth will be maligned.
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I've talked a lot about TV tonight. I can't even believe how much I talked about TV, but how long is the list of TV preachers who have had their sexual sins revealed on television?
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How many tearful confessions have we seen? And then how many of them go right back to preaching?
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Why do they do that? Because they know that their gospel will appeal to those who do not want to live a life of self -denial, of submission to Christ.
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He says there many will follow their sensuality. It appeals to them. It is attractive. False teachers proclaim the goodness of what the
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Bible warns against. And wait, you might say, they don't say commit adultery.
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No, but they often stress that God wants what? Us to be healthy, wealthy, happy, that we should love our lives, that we should care about our self -esteem.
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They often imply that the means to those ends are not that important, except there's always that one thing, that if you really want to make sure that you're going to heaven, you need to send
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X amount of dollars every month to their ministry. That goes without saying.
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Thirdly, they despise authority. 2 Peter 2 verses 9 and 10.
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Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.
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Verse 10, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
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False teachers live lives in opposition to the teaching of Jesus. Why? Because they indulge their desires.
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They pursue their desires wholeheartedly. And what did Jesus say in Luke 9? He said, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
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For whoever wishes to save his life, whoever values his life, whoever loves his life shall lose it.
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But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.
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For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? But the false teachers tell you, you don't have to give up anything.
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In fact, God wants you to have, he wants to add on to what you have.
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He doesn't want you to suffer. This life isn't about oppression. It's about joy and happiness and having it all.
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Never confuse this life, which is going to be marked by sin and difficulty and trouble and struggle and strife with the next life.
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That's what they'll do. That's what they teach. They despise authority.
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The term there, authority, means ruling power, lordship, dominion. They look down upon, they have contempt for anyone who holds any position of authority over them.
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You hear them talk about the
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Bible as if they can reinterpret it, as if they can reestablish it, as if they can change it.
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One of my favorite examples is I once heard a man on television talking about, he was talking about creation, and he said, you know where demons come from?
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He said, they were the beings that when God created man, God dispossessed, he gave the earth to man and dispossessed these demons of the earth.
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And I'm going, you know, that must be Genesis, the early days, you know, but Genesis negative three or sometime or, you know, it was crammed into the white pages somewhere, but they get away from it.
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Why? Because they are an authority unto themselves. They don't hold themselves under the Bible. They make up their own rules.
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They have, in effect, become gods unto themselves, small g. And if you listen to them long enough, you'll hear them say that they are little
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Christ's. And those who don't even pretend to be Christians may call themselves gods.
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And when you think about it, it's just logical. After all, what are boundaries to a God who is going to tell a
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God, small g, what to do? Answer? No one. They revile authority.
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They hate it. Fourthly, they slander celestial beings versus 1011.
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They are daring, self -willed. They do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the
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Lord. Listen, they recognize no limits on their authority. Nothing is above their pay grade.
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This verse 10, second part of it there, says that they literally blaspheme fallen angels.
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Kissed Marker says this, to what extent are these teachers bold and arrogant? They are even unafraid to slander angels.
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You know what Peter says in verse 11, even unfallen angels won't do that. These people recognize no authority higher than themselves.
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They have no fear whatsoever. Fifthly, they live immorally.
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Second part of verse 13 and verse 14, they counted a pleasure to revel in the daytime.
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They are stains and blemishes. Listen to the language. Shouldn't we be charitable? Shouldn't we be nice?
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Listen to how Peter describes them. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children.
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They long for sensual pleasure. When it says there that they have eyes full of adultery, it literally means having eyes full of an adulteress.
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That is, they think only of adultery when they see women. That's the first thing that they think of.
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That's what they want. If you think of them as some kind of sensual vampire moving from victim to victim, if they could, you'd have an accurate picture.
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This is what they long for. This is what they desire. And also they long for riches. You want to know who false teachers are?
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You want to know something about them? They're going to be very interested in sensual pleasure, and they're going to be very interested in money.
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One commentator says they work out in covetousness. They literally, the word comes from gymnasium, they work out in covetousness, practicing and sharpening greedy skills, yet they never have enough.
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No wonder Peter called them an accursed brood, literally children of a curse, which is a
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Hebrew saying denoting certain destruction from the hand of God. Sensuality, deception, greed, all are deserving of God's wrath.
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And this is what they do. This is their vocation and their avocation.
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Sixthly, they proclaim freedom, but they themselves are slaves.
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Verse 19, chapter 2, promising them freedom while they, in other words, they promise others freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption.
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For by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. The false teachers are like the overweight man who sells a diet book.
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They are absolute hypocrites. They're going to tell you that you can be free of things that they themselves cannot be freed of.
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They are enslaved to sin, but if they told you that, no one would listen.
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So they promise freedom to those that they've duped, those who have joined them.
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But at the same time, they are in bondage to those sins and they cannot stop sinning.
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Seventh, they mock the second coming. Chapter 3, verses 3 and 4. Know this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
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For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
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Now we won't hear many Christians talking like this, but certainly this has become very prevalent among atheists today.
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And to some extent, every unbeliever is like this. They are unafraid of the judgment to come. They live as if everything is always going to be the way it is right now.
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Hear things like this all the time. Things are the same as they've always been. I've never seen
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God. So God is a myth. How long have you been waiting for the second coming?
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Isn't it obvious that Jesus isn't coming back? Think about the
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Jews at the time of Jesus. How long have they been waiting for a Messiah? I'm sure many thought he would never come, but he did.
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We get those same questions. When you interact with unbelievers, you get these same questions all the time. But these false teachers don't believe in the resurrection.
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They suppress the truth of God and deny the return of Christ because they don't want to face a judge.
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They deny the miraculous. They deny the supernatural. They suppress the truth.
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Paul tells us they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They look at things and they say, listen, it was the big bang.
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Things evolved. There's nobody in charge. We'll just die and we're gone.
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Don't trouble us with talk of the second coming. Also, they deny the judgment to come.
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It flows right in there. Verses five to seven. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
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But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire. Kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
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Now, just imagine if there was a big wrapper around the world and it said reserve for fire. That's the picture.
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This world is going to be destroyed. It's day of judgment is coming.
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I love what Peter does here because I love sarcasm. I don't know if any of you know that about me. I love sarcasm and sometimes it appears in scripture and I love it when he says this, for when they maintain this, that, you know, things are the same as they've always been.
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He says it escapes their notice. He doesn't believe that. He says, you know, it kind of just escapes their notice.
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That what? That God created everything. That by his word, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed.
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It doesn't escape their notice. He knows that what they're doing is holding down the truth, that they want to deny a judge because then they don't, they can pretend like they don't fear the judgment.
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But he makes his case by appealing to creation, the flood, and then the future destruction of the world by fire.
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These are all supernatural events and these scoffers would suggest that they are impossible.
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But two have occurred and one is coming. He's reminding us of these things.
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We know these things, but it's good to be reminded. It's good to have those answers ready when you are confronted.
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And on that day, on the day of the Lord, the day of judgment, those who have mocked and scoffed at the power of God will be judged.
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God is not mocked forever. He is patient, but one day his patients will come to an end.
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Finally, ninth, they distort the scriptures versus 14 through 16.
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Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found.
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You're, you're anticipating the end. Be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless and regard the patients of our
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Lord as salvation. Just as also our beloved brother, Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction.
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What else can false teachers do than distort scripture? How could they possibly get scripture right? They don't have the
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Holy Spirit. And first Corinthians two 14 tells us that they cannot possibly understand scripture, let alone explain it without the
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Holy Spirit. And you know what? It would be bad enough if they were stuck with their own misunderstanding resulting in their own destruction, but they gather followers after themselves.
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They get people who are unsuspecting and undiscerning and unknowledgeable to follow them.
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In effect, these false teachers are leading their lemmings there. No nothing's off a cliff.
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Peter does say some things that Paul writes are hard to understand, but that should lead to study, not to distortion.
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I mean, I certainly wouldn't want to get up here and say something that I didn't about something that I didn't understand.
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The answer is study to distort means I love this in various senses of wrenching dislocated limbs for the purposes of setting them and of the use of torturous devices in the course of inquiries.
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Listen, distortion is painful. I mean, you don't want your body to be distorted and he's saying, listen, what they're doing to the
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Bible is a painful thing. In this context, it's twisting. It is making something that is true, false and false.
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True. They completely contort and twist scriptures into things that they never were intended to mean.
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For example, they talk about how demons were dispossessed off the earth and that's why they don't like us. Nonsense.
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So what are you to do? Peter tells us verses 17 and 18.
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You therefore beloved knowing this beforehand, listen, you've been warned.
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You know that the false teachers are coming. Be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our
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Lord and savior Jesus Christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
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Amen. So what does he say? He says, guard yourself, be on the lookout for false teachers, grow in grace, grow in knowledge.
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In summary, my message is no different than Peter's know the truth and guard against error.
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We live in a time where people are certain of one thing, that there can be no certainty.
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False teachers, as Peter writes here, were anticipated nearly 2000 years ago. Today they are not only widely accepted, they have become the face of Christianity.
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They preach happiness. Now they teach an emphasis on self -worth. They claim to know the mind of God, sometimes even receiving new revelation.
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They proclaim to have insights into the word of God that actually contradict it. They emphasize
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God's love and minimize or eliminate entirely the wrath of God.
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The Lord has given us this book of second Peter so that we might be spurred to know the truth so that when false teaching comes, we give it the stiff arm, we reject it.
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Listen to this quote by Morehead. He says, Christians should know the truth and the whole truth.
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They should be able to detect error and recognize the times in which they live. They should know the dangerous world that surrounds them and that ever seeks to poison their minds, debase their affections to reduce our affection for God, to neutralize their testimony and to paralyze their faith.
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We live in those times. Study the word of God. Be ready. Be on your guard.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you that nearly 2000 years ago, you would cause a man through your spirit to write a book that is absolutely timeless, that is instructive in this time of false teaching, where we are beset on every side by false teachers and false doctrines and half gospels.
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Father, would you protect every person here who knows you from such teaching? Lord, would you protect even those who don't know you in this room from such teaching?
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Would you bring them to a knowledge of the saving grace available through Jesus Christ?
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Father, would you make us all diligent students of your word, those who delight in your word, those who long to be equipped to be ready to do spiritual battle, as it were, against false doctrines and false systems?
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Make us proclaimers of the truth, lovers of the truth. And Lord, let us not, even as we gather together, as we fellowship, let us encourage one another to love and good works and particularly to good doctrine.