What Does It Mean to Confirm Our Election? | Theocast

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Now, Theocast, we get this question a lot. What about 2 Peter when it says that we should be confirming our calling on election by our obedience?

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Isn't that really a way for us to be examining ourselves and finding our assurance, saying, look, my obedience aligned with my confession?

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Yes and no, that passage has probably hurt more people than it's helped them, and Peter wrote it to help them.

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He actually wrote it to encourage them. So if you read 2 Peter 1, 10, and you're discouraged, you should keep listening.

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That is not what was intended. Stay tuned. If you're new to Theocast, you may not have heard of this word.

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It's called pietism. You ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden versus rest and joy, that you wake up worrying about how well you're gonna perform instead of thinking about what

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Christ has done for you? It's dread versus joy, really. That's pietism. Pietism causes

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Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope, not in what Christ has done, but what they're doing.

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And we have a little book for you. It's free. We want you to download it, and we're gonna explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism,

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Reformed theology, really, how it is that we walk by faith, seeing the joy of Christ, and when

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Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest, what does that look like? You can download it on our website.

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Just go to theocast .org. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ.

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We have conversations here at Theocast about the Christian life from a Reformed, confessional, and pastoral perspective.

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And your hosts today, the usual suspects, John Moffat, who is pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and I'm Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.

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This episode is gonna be coming to you in the new year, in the year of our Lord 2025, but for John and myself, this is the final, final recording.

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So this is our final day of recording, but this is our second of two episodes on our final day. So this is our last offering in the year of our

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Lord 2024. And John, I'm glad to have been able to do this for another year with you, man. Should the

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Lord tarry, I hope we got a number of years left to do this, and this has been a great joy in my life. I know you feel the same, and I am thankful for all the listeners out there.

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I know you are too. And I hope that this episode is encouraging to people. You're gonna tell us what it's about in just a minute, but before that, everybody's favorite part, a few brief announcements.

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2025, April 11 and 12 in Asheville, North Carolina, we have our first of this sort

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Theocast Conference on the Law and the Gospel. Due versus done. And in order to talk about all this, we've got our friends

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Chad Byrd and Ken Jones joining John and myself. And so we're gonna be giving talks, there's gonna be panel discussions, there's gonna be singing, there's gonna be a lot of time built in to hang out and enjoy food and drink in each other's company.

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So if you have not registered for this event, we would encourage you to do so. There are limited spots available. I'm assuming that it's not sold out by this point, but if you're wanting to come, about three months from now, go over to theocast .org,

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you can sign up, you can register. We hope to meet many of you in Asheville in April. The other thing that we would encourage you with, which we often point you to, is the

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Theocast Community. You can find information about that on our website as well. Couple thousand people in there.

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I always say it's Facebook, but better without the ads and the nonsense and the flame throwing. You can have interactions with people that are wrestling with and thinking through the same things that you are, who have the same light bulbs going off, and you're like, man, this is awesome, and we can just kind of talk about it together.

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It's really good. And so I would encourage you, if you're not in the community, join it. With that, by way of announcements, we're now gonna pivot, pivot hard to our conversation.

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So our brother, John, the Reverend John Moffat, he's been preaching, first and second

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Peter. And so we're gonna have a little conversation about a pretty well -known verse in second

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Peter chapter one, make your calling and election sure. I'm really hoping you give us the Calvin quote today.

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We'll see. But even if you don't, we're gonna talk about this. What does that mean, and what's second

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Peter about? John, tell us all the things we need to know, and I'll just kind of, like I told you, I'm just gonna top turnbuckle.

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I'm gonna come in off that thing and interact with what you say. So let's go, let's have a good time. Yeah, man, this passage, we get a request, and for a long time, people have been asking us to cover this particular passage.

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So I knew I was about to preach on it, so I didn't wanna necessarily - Everybody in here knew. That's right.

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That's right. So I didn't really wanna kind of get ahead of that. I wanted a chance to really think about that particular passage.

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Same thing in James, when I preached through James, and it's like, you know, thinking about the justification of your faith.

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So you can go back and listen to our James 1 podcast on that. All right, so it's important for, whenever you're looking at a particular passage, and it's like, wow, that seems contrary, or that seems weird, that seems strange, why is that in there?

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It's really important to understand why something's being written, who it's being written to, what are they trying to accomplish?

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Because it will change how you understand that particular instruction, right?

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You just take what Peter is saying, I'll just read the verse out of context, and I mean, you could mean a lot of different things.

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I have so many things I wanna say right now, and I'm just refraining. Look at me, self -control, fruit of the spirit over here.

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There you go. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

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So just in that particular paragraph, or sentence,

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Justin, practice the qualities of confirming your election means you're never gonna fall.

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My guess is, fall away from the faith. So we need to be constantly proving that we are saved.

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And if we don't, then we could fall away. That's how it's, in many different ways, that's how it's translated.

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And we don't seem to read the next verse, which kinda kiboshes some of this. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Whoa, so I guess confirming our calling and election is the way in which we will enter into the kingdom of God.

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That's how it's translated. No, that is so contrary to the entire book.

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For instance, let's just go back to the first few verses, particularly verse three.

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His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.

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Justin, there is a reason why Peter puts his divine power, grants to us everything for life and godliness.

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Either it's a starting point where Peter says we're getting kicked off and then we confirm it, or Peter means something else.

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Because when it says granted all things, I think he meant some things. I think it's a mistranslation. Because later on,

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Peter gets confused. He gets a little wobbly, and he's like, well, what I meant to say is that there's some things that are provided.

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He gave us everything, but what you gonna do with it? Because you might not do with it what you're supposed to do with it. That's right. You might not confirm yourself.

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So we got conflicting thing. We got conflicting. So I think it's improper to say, well, 1

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Peter 1 .3 is the translation we're gonna go with. It's the one we're most comfortable with, and we're just gonna ignore verse 10.

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That's wrong. It's also wrong to interpret verse 10 and not look at verse three.

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And I think there's even a worse failure is to look at the whole letter. So what we're gonna do is this.

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Peter's writing, this is his second letter. It's his deathbed letter. He literally says in verse 15 that he's about to die.

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So this is the last words coming from a dying apostle. Jesus told him he's about to die. And so he's like, look,

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I wanna write these things so that when I die, my testimony remains with you, and it can be a constant source of encouragement and reminder because he is worried about Satan coming back in and messing with the church again.

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Well, we know this for a fact that he's worried about the church getting kicked off the gospel, and kicked off the purpose of their life because of chapter two.

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So in chapter one, he's reestablishing their faith, and what does the practice of their faith look like?

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This is why he says, add to your faith. Now, I hate this phrase, add to your faith, or it says supplement.

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So this is in verse four or verse five. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

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That's not a great translation. A better way of saying this is the way in which it's used, it was often used in ancient

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Rome, where one would fund, like they would see a play, and they would want the city to see the play.

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And so you would have one who would fund the actors and fund all the costumes. So it's taking from one's wealth, saying

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I want everyone to experience what I experienced. So I'm going to fund it. This is the same word.

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It means to fund it. It means to take, because what he says, everything's been given to you. His divine power has granted to you all things.

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Now he says, spend it. Go spend it out. Go, and what does he describe?

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Fruits. He talks about being fruit, and he talks about being effective. That's right. Yeah, so we have received

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Christ, and now he says, now let others be affected by what you have received. This is important.

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He's saying, use these type of qualities. These qualities will be effectively spending your faith on people, okay?

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It's important to understand that. Now, why? Why is he making it very clear, first of all, where their salvation comes from and how their life will be different?

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Their life is not spent living in the indulgence of the flesh, but now it's lived, now listen to some of these, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, love.

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These are all horizontal, Justin. These are all coming out of us towards the benefit of others, and he says this in verse eight.

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For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that's what we're about.

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We want people to know Jesus. According to Peter, people will know Jesus by the way in which we love them and we show our affection towards them.

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It draws them in, so no one is ever saved by them, but they are effectively receiving the benefits of Christ by our good works.

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For sure. Now, whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins, okay?

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So in this opening statement, we have two types of people so far. We have those who are effective and those who are fruitful, who receive the gospel and they're like,

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I want other people to be affected by my new life. Then you have a second category. You have people who are struggling.

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They're blind. They got swayed by Satan. He's like, look, y 'all forgot the gospel. You need to go back and remember where you came from.

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Those are the first two categories. Now, he's writing this letter because he's worried about the third category of people.

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And this is what he gets into in chapter two. Listen to who he introduces to us. There's a new character in the church.

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2 Peter 2, verse one. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destructions.

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Well, how will we know who these people are? And many will follow their sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be blast themed.

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And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

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There's a third category. Peter is worried that the congregation doesn't know how to identify these people.

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He's pointing to them and saying, you need to be aware of people who are, it's not that they're struggling, they're openly teaching heresy.

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They are teaching one can be of Christ and live sensually, openly, and actually celebrate it as if it's an okay way of acting.

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And then it says here, it says, denying the master that bought them. I think what they're saying is they're claiming the name of Christ and in their actions, they're denying him.

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They're actually doing the opposite. There's many translations on this. I feel like that's the best one because they're saying, hey,

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I'm of Christ. And they actually deny him in the way that they act. Well, that category, I don't wanna spend long here, but it immediately popped into my mind when you were talking that way.

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It's a first Corinthians five thing where Paul in that context is rebuking the church in Corinth for the same, not identical, it's not a false teacher issue, but it is their posture towards sin where there is a man who is doing something that even pagans know is just absolutely heinous and absurd, but yet you are arrogant, meaning what?

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You're thinking that this is an appropriate expression of Christian freedom or something, when in reality, you should be grieved by this and you should put the man out for his own sake that he might be restored.

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Similar kind of idea that I think it was in Paul's mind pertaining to what was going on in Corinth in terms of this kind of posture towards licentiousness in sin and debauchery.

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It's like, no, you think this is good and you are championing this all while claiming Christ and that ought not be.

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Okay, so that is, you've got these three categories of people that he's gonna be dealing with.

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He's got those who are faithfully obeying, they're being effective in the church, right?

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They're being effective in the church. Then you have those who are blind. They've allowed Satan and some of these false teachers have swayed them.

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Sure, and these are weak and struggling people. That's right. Peter does not question their salvation.

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He says, you just forgot what happened to you. You need to be reminded of the good news. That's right. So you need to be reminded you were cleansed from that and now you have a new life waiting for you.

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And then he's, the third category, he's like, you're gonna, you got these people who are claiming they're of you, but their words.

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So like, James says the same thing, right? James is talking about justification of our faith. It's one thing to say you're a

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Christian, but then if your words and your actions deny Jesus, it's like, that's a problem. I mean, that's a legitimate problem.

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Not a struggling Christian. I'm going back to the last episode. We can talk about that distinction, yeah. Yeah, we'll talk about it in a minute.

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I wanna finish the quality, I wanna finish the, because once you have this distinction, chapter two is coming, you know.

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So Peter's preparing us for chapter two. He says this, therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for who practice these things, you will never fall.

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Now, what he means by fall is he's pointing back to our effectiveness. He's pointing back to the way in which we should live.

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And he's right. If we are motivated by the gospel and showing brotherly love and we're showing affection and kindness and stability, then the way in which we are trying to proceed in this life, we're not gonna fall into the same sensual lifestyle of chapter two.

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We're not gonna do that. Then he says, for in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the kingdom of God, of our

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God and Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, this is important, Justin. This goes back to writing and context.

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So in the Roman, when the Roman legions would come home and they were coming back from battle, there would be at the gate where they would come in, there would be this lavish, like welcoming ceremony where all these flowers and everything was, it was this massive welcome home.

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And Peter is using kind of like this word picture because what's gonna happen, what is happening to these poor, precious

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Christians who decide to live for the king, they're living godly lives in an ungodly city, they're being mocked and ridiculed, they're poor, they're feeling it.

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And Jesus says, listen, what's waiting for you is a lush welcoming into the kingdom.

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It's not based on their performance. Remember this. It can't be, Justin. The rich welcoming into the kingdom can't be based on their performance.

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Why? Because he already told them a few verses ahead. Everything's been guaranteed to you.

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Your entire inheritance is all yours. He's motivating them with, hey, look, your life here is hard and your life here is rough, but what's waiting for you the moment you enter the kingdom, it is lush.

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It is, you're gonna be welcomed with, like it's like, I don't know about you, when you bought your first home, my wife and I bought our first home, there was like no furniture.

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The rooms literally echoed because we couldn't put anything in there. We couldn't afford to. And the way in which

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Peter's writing is like, hey, when you show up, I know what you're experiencing now is rough, but what's waiting for you is so much better.

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This is why he says in the first letter, set your hope fully on the grace that is to come. Okay, so let's keep reading.

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So he says, for in this way, there'll be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

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I think it right as long as I am with you in this body to stir you up by way of remembrance.

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So he's saying, it's important that I remind you how to live because the world is gonna trick you and deceive you.

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These false teachers are gonna think, hey, you can go back to your old life. So he's like, I wanna remind you of the gospel and I wanna remind you of what kind of life it leads you into.

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I don't think, and I'll throw this over to you, Justin, there's no way that this is you trying to sure up your assurance.

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This is not what he's doing. He's saying, look, there is a way to identify these false teachers and don't let them dupe you.

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Hey guys, real quick, some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So where do you go?

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How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources? We have started something called the

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Theocast Community. We're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like -minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, education materials, articles, all of it's there and you can share it and ask questions.

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You can go check it out. The link is in the description below. The language is that in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even entrance into the kingdom is provided for us. But by who? You know, again, from the context of verse three onward, it's all about God and what he's done, what he's given us.

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He's given us everything and that has to undergird how we interpret verses like eight through 11 and following and we've talked before about the fruitfulness and the effectiveness pieces and how, you know, there are like,

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I love the categories of people that you've given us because it's very clear. There are the faithful, effective types that are certainly in Peter's mind.

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There are those who are ineffective and what is it that they most need? Well, they need to be reminded of who they are.

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They need to be reminded of the good news and so that's important as well. And then you have false teachers who are intentionally, maliciously leading people astray but are also, like we've already said, are championing licentiousness and debauchery in the name of Christ.

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Like we're claiming Jesus but this over here kind of is doing whatever you want and whatever you feel like doing, doing things that are following the course of the world, frankly.

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I mean, it's like, oh yeah, this is what Christian freedom is and that's really bad. I mean, so I think to have those categories and views is important but yeah, in no way, shape or form do

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I think that what Peter is saying in making our calling and election sure, it's like, well, you need to do something in order to have assurance.

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You need to do things adequately enough to know that you're safe.

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Now, we say a lot, I'll just go in again and then maybe you could read that quote from John Calvin just while we're on this verse.

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Because I think it's bomb and then I might interact with that. I mean, I think that we want to be super clear that our good works.

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No, man, okay, I'm gonna try to refrain, control myself here. There was something

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I saw on Twitter the other day. I actually weighed in on it where, man,

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I don't know if I should say this or not. I'm doing the whole fun of it. You already used it now, now you got to. I've seen too many

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IFB preacher clips. Y 'all don't want me to say it. Y 'all don't want me to say it. All right, so some friends of ours on Twitter, there was a quote from Mark Jones.

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Yeah, okay. And it was something that he had written that God doesn't need our good works but Christ does.

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And I mean, there's context and everything but I mean, I effectively am like, I don't know in what sense Jesus needs our good works because via union with him by faith, not through anything that we do but just receiving it with an open hand, we are justified, sanctified and glorified by him.

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I mean, he does not need our works for any of that. He is the one who does those things in and through us, right, even the sanctification piece.

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And I said, I'm with Luther, you know, that God doesn't need our good works but our neighbor does. And even our confession, the second

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London Baptist confession, chapter 16 on good works, says a lot of things about good works but never that Jesus needs them.

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And so what can our good works do? Well, I mean, they can absolutely bless our neighbor.

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They can build up our brothers and sisters. They can adorn our profession of faith and they can bolster our assurance.

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That's all true. So we're not saying that what we do can't bolster our assurance or can't do these things but the ground of our assurance to know that we have peace with God, to know that we have hope eternally, to know that we're safe in the presence of the

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Lord could never be built upon or contingent upon what we do. I don't think that's what

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Peter is saying at all. So with that - No, at all, at all. I mean, so read that Calvin quote, man, on making our calling an election short.

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Yeah, so this is Calvin on this particular section. It's really, really long, so I condensed it down but he has a really long section on here and it's quite entertaining.

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Now, a question arises whether the stability of our calling and election depends on good works. For if it be so, it follows that it depends on us but the whole scriptures teaches us first that God's election is founded on the eternal purpose and second, that calling begins and is completed through his gracious goodness.

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Purity of life is not improperly called the evidence and proof of election. Word. By which the faithful may not only testify to others that they are the children of God but also confirm themselves in this confidence in such a manner, however, that they fix their solid foundation on something else, on something else, which the foundation,

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Peter, already gave us. Exactly. The divine power that's been granted. The foundation is the divine power.

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It's the gracious operating, the gracious working of God. It's God's love and mercy and grace to sinners.

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Amen. Right. So I think in this particular context, it's very clear when you read the entire book and it's like sit down and read the whole thing.

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Just in five minutes maybe. And what you're gonna get is that Peter is helping that weak, fabling church that's had these false teachers have come in.

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He's like, look, let me teach you how to root them out. Let me teach you how to get them out of here. Listen, Paul does the same thing.

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When he's dealing with these people who are coming in to the church, this is 2

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Corinthians chapter 11. Listen to what he says here. For such men as false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder for even

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Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

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Their end will correspond to their deeds. So Paul just kind of just straight up says it for you.

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And so you can see Peter goes about it in a very long way using Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood and a lot of other things, saying the same thing.

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This is what comes out of their mouth, but look at their, this is their profession, but look at their words and then look at their actions and what's where they're headed is correspondent to that.

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So it is, Justin and I want to straight up say that it is very possible and it has happened and it will continue to happen because this is the tactic of the evil one to bring in destructive heresies, proclaiming

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I am of Christ and then leading people away. And it is of utmost importance, which is why we practice church discipline, that we make sure that our profession of Christ, I am of Christ, follows our confession.

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This is why he says, hold fast to our confession of Christ, which then our confession of Christ should agree with our actions.

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This is why, it's not that we won't struggle and it's not that we won't fall into sin, it's that we agree that that sin is wrong and should not be promoted and should not be celebrated.

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False teachers celebrate it and promote it. Beautiful, I'll double down.

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We've said many times that the difference between a Christian and somebody who isn't is not that the

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Christian doesn't sin and the person who isn't a Christian still sins. The difference is that we, as Christians, have agreed with God about our sin and we've sided with him against it.

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And we turn to Christ in faith in the face of it. We take it to the Lord, we confess our sin, we acknowledge it, all the things.

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That's the difference. It's not that we don't sin, it's not that we don't struggle. It's not even, let me say this, it's not even that we don't, in our flesh, still find sin attractive.

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Because we do, our flesh, the flesh loves sin, period. I mean, it will until we are raised incorruptible and imperishable.

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So that's important to acknowledge. And yet, what you said is so pivotal, there are people, i .e.

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false teachers and false professors, who actually encourage people towards sinful living in the name of Christ.

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They will, because of Jesus, go and do this. Because of Jesus, this is fine, right?

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Don't worry about it. Because of Christ, that is a lie from hell. And it's important, like Peter's context is quite different, actually, than most of the contexts of our local churches.

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Because I don't know about you, John, but very few people that come to Covenant Baptist Church who become members,

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I mean, if they're new converts to the faith, that's one thing, and we're having a lot of conversations with them about what it looks like to be a

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Christian. But then, generally speaking, the vast majority of the people present on a Sunday, none of them are thinking that licentious living or engaging in debaucherous sin is good.

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Or that like, oh yeah, because we're Christians, it's fine to go do whatever we feel like doing in Jesus' name, and the

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Lord approves of that. I don't know a single member of our congregation that thinks that way. And because you had false teachers in this context saying these things and leading people astray, you need to go in and be clear.

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Like, this is not how we operate. Just like you would do, or I would do, or any faithful pastor would do, if in the congregation that we're a part of, that we are watching over, if we see people saying, yeah, this is really good, that you would go and sin like this, or this is really good, that you just go and do whatever you feel like doing in the name of Christ, and God applauds it, he approves of it.

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If people were saying that, we would seek to correct it, which is what Peter's doing. And yeah, and he is not in any way calling the salvation of the weak and the struggling into question.

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In fact, for those people, he's saying, you need to be reminded of who you are, and you need to be reminded of the gospel.

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And so we're gonna, like we would do, we're gonna hold Jesus out to you so that you may be nourished and strengthened in the faith.

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Now, for the false teachers, Peter has some, like. Very strong words.

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Whoa, yeah, go read chapter two. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness.

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I mean, he just goes on and on and on about the days of Noah, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot, and yeah, it's like, whoa.

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I mean, it's so bad, he even calls Lot a righteous man. I don't know if I'd use that word about Lot, but in comparison,

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I get it. But that's very heavy, that's law. And so it's like, okay, with people who are saying, well, this is good that you would go do this in the name of Christ, how do we respond?

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We do come in and drop the hammer of the law. Here is the reality, here's how bad that is, and here's what that deserves.

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Yeah, if you promote this, this is the destruction. Exactly, this is what awaits. The wrath of God is coming for these things.

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Okay, so Justin, this is probably a whole nother podcast on this, and I totally didn't set you up for this. Are we gonna get to chapter three in the hope that Jesus is coming back?

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We gonna talk about it at all? Yeah, we'll get there in a minute. Okay, we don't have five minutes left, John. Yeah, I know, I know, we only got a few minutes left.

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But Justin, in modern day context, people who promote intimacy before marriage, or say,

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I know there's probably children that listen to this, so I have to be careful, but even same gender marriage, if someone promotes you can be in Christ and this is acceptable, then would this fall under that category?

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Yeah, if you're saying that something that the scripture forbids that is against God's will and against God's law is good, then you should be sincerely and earnestly corrected in rebuke.

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Yeah, and if you don't, you need to be, you need to mark them as a false teacher. Yeah, right.

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According to Peter. If they will not change, they need to be marked off as a false prophet. Because these things that you're talking about are not objectionable in the scriptures.

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That sexual union is meant for a man and a wife in the covenant of marriage.

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That men marry women, women marry men. Those kind of, and we could name a number of other things.

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Right, and the reason why I bring this up. God even made us male and female on purpose. There are a lot of issues in our day that many people who claim

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Christ will say, oh no, that's entirely fine and good that you do that. This is an allegiance passage.

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So I got all to this to get to this point. This is an allegiance passage. Another way of translating this is saying, show your allegiance to Christ by saying that's wrong.

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Like, we're not gonna do that. That's contrary to our King. Agreement. That's what he means by calling.

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Like, hey, you were called into the kingdom. He's like, look, show your allegiance. Like, we're not gonna do that. That's wrong.

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Yeah, and if I can, the allegiance is shown to run deeper when we rightly acknowledge that the things we just described, whether it's premarital intimacy or same -sex marriage or anything pertaining to whether I am actually a man or a woman or my gender.

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Right, that's all our sensuality. Okay, we can acknowledge this.

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Our allegiance is shown to run deeper when we acknowledge that, yeah, in my flesh, because this is a cursed world and sin has affected me, there are gonna be all kinds of cravings and desires that are natural to my fallen nature that are actually contrary to the will of God.

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But my allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom is so deep and significant that I can say over and against the desires and cravings and passions of my own flesh that he is better and that this is truth and that this is good, not what

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I crave. What I crave in my flesh is actually not good. And I'm confessing that,

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I'm agreeing with God about that, and I'm casting myself into the arms of Christ in light of that. That's what allegiance looks like.

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It's not hellfire and brimstone only. It's not judgment and law only.

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It's not all this stuff where it's like, well, you just need to get your act together and figure out your whatever, your sexual life, or figure out whatever kind of mental health issues you got going on or emotional health issues you got going on.

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You need to put the bottle down and come to Jesus. That's not what we're saying. Anyway, I trust that runs, it's clear enough for people.

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Just wanted to make that distinction. No, and it's like, it's looking at the state of the world and you have two, there's two gods.

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I mean, Paul says the God of this world versus our God and King. We're saying, hey, we're going to be allegiance to the

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King. And we're going to agree with him that our tendencies are wrong. And we're going to walk by the

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Spirit and we're going to trust his truth. And when we fail, we're going to repent. We're going to repent. We're going to repent.

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But we agree with our King that this is the good way to live. And that is not, that's what the first chapter is about.

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We're not trying to take the way of the evil one in the course of the fallen world and say that this is what

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God would have. Exactly. We're not trying to do that. Yeah, and then it gets to the third chapter because he knows this is going to be hard, man.

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This is hard. And they're even, they're getting mocked. Like, okay, you're King. It is a war and it's a battle.

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Yeah. It's like, listen, being allegiance, showing allegiance to the King is hard. Yeah. It's so hard.

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And Peter says, listen, I know they're mocking you and that, you know, he said he was coming back soon. Well, it's been, you know, it's been a while.

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Where's he at? And in their mind, it's been a hundred years. We're like, wait, it's 2 ,000 years, man. But the reason why he's reigning, he goes, listen, showing allegiance to the

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King, confirming your calling, fighting off against this that is damaging to people and damaging to the kingdom.

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We don't want to be a part of that. Listen, he's coming. I promise you he's coming back. I promise.

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The relief is on its way. So when you read this passage, read it as one where Peter is writing saying, listen, there's a lot of false information coming in.

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Remember your foundation, divine power granted to you by God's grace. Remember how that affects you.

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Like you want to love and care for people. And there are going to be people who are going to try and pull you off of your allegiance to Christ.

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This is how you show your allegiance, by graciously be patient and kind and loving and godliness and saying no to sensuality.

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And I know this is going to be hard. I promise you he's coming back. That's the whole tone of the letter. So if someone preaches it towards you and they're trying to say, see, you're not doing enough good works in order to prove you're saved, that is not the tone.

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That's not what he's doing. Okay, so let's just be clear on that. He's really worried about some bad stuff, like really sexually bad stuff.

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I mean, Rome was wild during this time. Yeah, if I may, I'm not the one that's preached the book, but I'm just gonna do this real quick.

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Yeah, God has given you everything. And it's good that you would continue to, like you said, spend your faith and your life in these particular ways that you might be effective for your brothers and sisters and for the building up of the kingdom of Christ.

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If you're ineffective, you're weak, you're struggling, and that is all you can see right now.

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What you need to be reminded of is Christ and who you are in him. Now, be careful, because there are people who have crept in who are saying all kinds of things to you and are exhorting and encouraging and championing all kinds of things that are actually terrible.

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And you need to avoid such people. That's right. Because they're gonna harm you. And this is gonna be hard.

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But yeah, you're encountering trials and suffering and you're being persecuted and all of that. And you're wondering when

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Jesus is coming back. I promise you the Lord isn't slow to keep his promises. Amen. Trust him. That's exactly what he says.

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He's not slow. Trust him, right? Like you can, you can trust him. And even the way he concludes the kind of final pieces, before he says the verse that we often know, grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But he kind of introduces a lot of this. You know, beloved, since you're waiting, be diligent to be found in him without spot or blemish and at peace and count the patience of our

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Lord as salvation. What a beautiful line. And then he says, just as our beloved brother,

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Paul also wrote to you. And then he says, some of the things Paul writes, they're hard to understand, but apparently this was clear to Peter that the patience of God is our salvation.

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And it's like, man, it's good. It's a really good letter. And there's nothing wrong with Peter's intention of saying being found without spot and blemish.

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Because what he's saying is like, we are covered by Christ, but our desire is to do our best to love others and to reflect

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Christ. Which of us, which saint out there wakes up in the morning thinking, man, father, good morning.

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I'm just really, I'm just thinking about all the ways that I can sin today. Someone who's confused for sure.

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Right, I mean, who's doing that? None of us. I mean, we're all like, ah, you know, some of us are still plagued by the sins of yesterday.

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And it's like, man, I've woken up and I've just got guilt and shame weighing heavy on my soul. Lord, please take these away and forgive me and cleanse me and restore me.

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I love you. I know that you love me and protect me today. Protect me from the evil one today.

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You know, keep me from the passions and the cravings in my flesh today. I want to honor you today. That's what we all think and feel.

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That's right. Be self -reminded. So it's not a bad way to talk, right? This is what we want to be.

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No, we're not afraid of it. Right, and in Christ, it's what we are and what we will be presented pure and blameless.

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Anyway. Yeah, so all of that to say, Peter's motivation is always the gospel. He always is saying, he remembered the...

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I mean, Justin, we need to reclaim that phrase from Peter. His divine power, guys, that's what empowers us to be saved and obey.

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His divine power, okay? That's where we always rest. But there is a contrast, like the way the divine power affects us, we do live different from the world.

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And Peter wants us to see that. Yeah, that's true. And even though God has given us everything that we need, there are gonna be times when our lives are up and down, and that doesn't mean that he's unfaithful and that he won't deliver on all his promises.

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It means we forgot, he didn't forget, we forgot. Okay, well, hopefully that was helpful. One, it brings clarity and relief.

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And secondly, we're not antinomians. You should not live sensual lives. If you've forgotten the gospel, repent.

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If you are teaching, you should live sensual lives. Hear my warning well, you are on the path of destruction and you need to repent and believe the gospel.

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You need to hear the gospel that you are to be set free from that. So that's a warning to all of you who think you can live sensual lives.

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And listen, I'm very compassionate toward you. I'm not saying that in a moment of judgment. I have no reason to judge. I am not the judge, but the

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Bible is very clear. And so that's encouragement to you. For you who are worried, I don't know if I'm saved.

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Listen, look to his divine power, not to your obedience. If you agree that your allegiance with the king and you hate your sin, great, keep repenting and keep trusting

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Christ and he will not let you go. The Christian life is one of continual repentance, where we're, yeah, we're turning from sin, but we're turning ultimately to Christ in faith.

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Nothing shall separate you from his love. No, amen. Yeah, that's right, amen. All right, with all of that, dear listener, we're gonna leave it with you.

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And like I said, this is our last recording of 2024. You're getting this in 2025. We're hoping to provide more content in the year to come.

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If you would like to support our ministry, go to the website, you can donate there. We'd be grateful for that.

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We're appreciative of all of you and thankful for you. And you mean more to us and your encouragement means more to us than you might ever know.

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So with that, continue trusting in Christ. We'll talk soon, shouldn't unless he returns, peace. Hey everyone, before you go,

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Justin and I first wanted to say thank you. And if this has been encouraging to you in any way, please feel free to share it.

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But we also need your support. And it's when you give that it really helps us financially reach more people.

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So the next time you consider giving to a ministry, we hope that you would pray about Theocast and partner with us as we share the gospel around the world.