SNBS: The Life of Peter - A Perfect Example of Sanctification

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Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley here at Witton Baptist Church.
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We have been discussing the life of the apostles the past few weeks. We have covered the life of Paul, we talked a little bit about the life of James last week.
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Today we're going to talk about the life of Peter. And instead of a biographical way, we're going to just talk about Peter through the scriptures.
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And I titled this, The Life of Peter, A Perfect Picture of Sanctification.
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And here's what I mean by that. Remember, sanctification is the process of being made more and more like Christ.
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So sanctification, you know, three stages. You're positionally sanctified, that's you're in Christ Jesus.
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Stage two is progressive sanctification, that's the process of being made more and more like Christ.
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And then three is perfected sanctification, or glorification, and that is what happens on the last day when you are taken home.
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So let's talk about Peter and his life of sanctification. There's a lot of misunderstanding about Peter, but let's just look through the scriptures and see what it has.
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As always, remember that at Witton Baptist Church we do seven videos a week, Monday mornings is time out with Pastor Ben's live,
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Tuesday night live Bible study with Pastor Jeff, Wednesday hymn history with Brother Andrew, Thursday live wild moments with the women of Witton, Fridays are off,
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Saturdays we have question and answer, sometimes live, sometimes pre -recorded, and then
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Sundays we have two. We have the morning sermon from Pastor Jeff, and we have the
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Sunday night Bible study, which is of course here. As always, please like and share these videos, it helps us get the gospel out, we don't get any money for it or anything like that, but it helps us get the gospel out, so like and share these on your personal
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Facebook, find one that you love, find Pastor Ben, your favorite time out with Pastor Ben, your favorite hymn history, your favorite wild moment, whatever, and share it.
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That's how we help get the message out the most. Okay, so without further ado, let's talk about the life of Peter.
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First off, Peter was a fisherman, and if you read the parallel passages of his calling, and when
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I say parallel passages I mean you read it in Matthew and Mark and Luke and whatever, we get the idea that really there was a fishing business of five people.
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That's Peter and Andrew, they were brothers, James and John, and James and John's father.
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So we have Peter and Andrew who were brothers, James and John who were brothers, and this is James, John's brother, sons of Zebedee, who was the fifth person in the fishing business, and this is the
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James that Herod, we believe Herod killed in Acts chapter 12. Herod had him put to death by the sword.
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So James and John who were brothers, their dad Zebedee, and then Peter and Andrew who were brothers. So this is
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Peter's calling. This is Matthew chapter 4, and in verse 18 it says,
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While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he, being Jesus, saw two brothers, Simon, who's called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net in the sea, and they were fishermen.
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And he said to them, Follow me, and I'll make you fishers and men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers,
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James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. In the boat was Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. He called to them.
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Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Something can be made about why
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Zebedee didn't follow. Maybe Jesus wasn't talking to him. Maybe he didn't believe. Yada, yada, yada. I don't want to make too much of that at the moment.
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But there is Peter's calling. He was a fisherman. Jesus called him. Peter obeyed. Which is amazing if you think about it.
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This is someone Peter had never met before, but the Holy Spirit was doing a work already.
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Peter didn't know it. Okay, often, especially by unbelievers and atheists, there is a caricature about the
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New Testament writers and how could they write the New Testament. They were illiterate and uneducated and all types of stuff like that.
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Well, let me give some element of truth to that and then discredit other parts of that.
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First off, in the scripture, we have internal evidence of some of what they're saying. This is Acts chapter 4 in front of the
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Sanhedrin, in front of the council. This is
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Acts chapter 4. They just healed a man who had been lame since birth. And verse 13,
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Acts 4, 13. Now when they, that's the council, saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated common men.
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We'll come back to that. They were astonished and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
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When they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another saying, what shall we do with these men? For this is a noble sign that's been performed and it's evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
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We can't deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone about this name.
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They called them in and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.
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For we cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard.
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They go on to say, in chapter 5, that they must obey
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God rather than man. Okay, I believe it's chapter 5, verse 29.
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Alright, a lot can be said about that, but let's just hold off for a minute. First off, the
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Sanhedrin, which is the council they stood in front of in chapter 5,
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I believe, if I'm wrong, we'll find out in a minute. At any rate, they're in front of the council of the leaders and Peter tells them that Jesus is the one you crucified.
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Remember, Jesus stood in front of the council of the Sanhedrin. My point is this, they had boldness, but the
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Pharisees called them and the Sadducees called them uneducated, untrained men.
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Okay, now here's my point. In that culture, in Palestine in the first century, most people would have been bilingual in at least speech.
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They would have spoken Aramaic, that is the form of Hebrew, the language of the
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Jews in that time, and then they would have probably also spoken Greek, that was the common language in the area ever since Alexander the
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Great spread his empire in the 300s BC. Well now,
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Greek is the common language of the Roman Empire. Everyone had their own, not tribal, but their own cultural language like Aramaic, but they also spoke
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Greek, that was the language of commerce. When the Roman soldiers came for their taxes, you better be able to understand what they were saying.
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And that is the language that the New Testament writers wrote in, so that it could be circulated and gone throughout the whole world.
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So just a few things about New Testament writers, when people say they're uneducated and untrained. That's true in one sense.
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Peter and John, from the vantage point of the Pharisees and Sadducees, would have been untrained. They were not trained in the scriptures.
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They did not have a Galil like Paul did, who had trained them in the scriptures. That's true.
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But they would have been bilingual. Now as far as reading and writing, Luke, who wrote
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Luke and Acts, was a doctor. He was a physician, so he would have been educated. We know about Paul's private tutoring under Galil, well private tutoring, he was taught under Galil for years.
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There's 15 of the New Testament books right there. Keep in mind that the
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New Testament writers admittedly sometimes would dictate their letters. Peter says this in 1
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Peter. He's saying that someone is writing, he has a secretary, writing down exactly what he's saying.
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He's dictating why the other person writes it. That doesn't mean he's not the author, he is the author. Someone else is just writing exactly what he says, just like in a courtroom when someone types it.
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And that doesn't mean the one who's typing it, it's their words, it's whoever they're copying from. So the
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New Testament writers use secretaries, and there's nothing wrong with that. They admit they do. So, there is
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Peter, there is his background, if you will. What I want to talk about is the life change from them.
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So even though Peter walked with Jesus for three and a half years, he still had a lot of growing to do.
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Christian, if you're a Christian, don't think the day you become a Christian you become perfect. It's a process. The point is, are you putting up a fight against sin, and do you have a desire in working out your salvation and obedience?
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So let's talk about Peter's denial. Now if you read all the parallel passages, you get a good picture of this, but we're going to read
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Luke 22. So remember Jesus told
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Peter, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Well, you read all the accounts of this in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Peter is following Jesus from a distance, and he's warming himself in the courtyard by the fire.
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Someone walks up and says, hey, don't you know Jesus? No, I don't know that guy. Someone else, hey, don't you know that Jesus guy?
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Haven't you been walking with him all these years? No, I don't know him. Third time, the woman comes up and asks him, hey, didn't
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I see you in the garden with Jesus, which would have only been like six hours ago? And it says
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Peter swore and took an oath. I don't want to put that in modern vernacular because it's inappropriate, but Peter said,
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I swear to God, I don't know who that is. It says he swore and took an oath.
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It's a powerful sentence he just said. At that, Luke 22, 61, once Peter said that, verse 61, the
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Lord, who is off from a distance because he's omnipotent, omniscient, knew what
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Peter just said. It says the Lord turned and looked at Peter from a distance, and he remembered the saying of the
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Lord, how he said before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times, and he went out and wept bitterly. When Peter said that last time,
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I don't know him, it says from a distance, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. Heartbreaking.
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Wouldn't you just feel like dirt? No wonder Peter went out and wept bitterly. Well, Jesus appeared to disciples after his resurrection, but he didn't speak directly to Peter.
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Peter went back to fishing. We read in John 21, this is John 21, 15 -19, often called the
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Restoration of Peter. So that was Peter's denial, if you will. This is called Peter's restoration.
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Just like Peter denied Jesus three times, three times Jesus asked Peter, does he love him? And they went off by themselves.
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He didn't do this in front of the other disciples. John 21, 15, when they finished practice,
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Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon said to John, do you love me more than these? He said, yes, Lord, you know I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs.
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Then he said a second time, Simon said to John, do you love me? And he said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said, tend my sheep.
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He said a third time, Simon said to John, do you love me? Peter was greed because he had asked him a third time, do you love me? And said to him,
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Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. When you're old, you will stretch out your hands.
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Another will dress you and carry you where you don't want to go. This, he said, to show by what kind of death he would glorify
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God. And after he said all this, he said, follow me. What were the first words Jesus said to Peter?
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Follow me and leave everything. And now at the end of his life, the obedience command has not changed.
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Follow me. Three and a half years of ministry, obedience is still the main thing,
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Christian. It's still about obedience. I care if you've been saved six months or 60 years.
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Obedience is still what God desires. Now, we could go into a lot about this, about agape and philem and different loves and the fact that he denied him three times and Jesus restored him three times and all that kind of stuff.
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But notice a couple of things, just real quick. Verse 17,
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Peter says, Lord, you know everything. Who can that be said about?
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Only God, because Jesus is God. Who else could we say they are omniscient, they know everything?
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Only God. Peter recognizes that Jesus knows everything. So Jesus tells him to feed his sheep.
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Well, look all the way over here in 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter is addressing pastors, elders.
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In 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 through 5, Peter writes this. This is 30 years later after that night.
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Peter says, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that's going to be revealed.
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Shepherd the flock. Hey, that's what Jesus told me to do 30 years ago and that's now what I'm telling you to do.
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Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not in the compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
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Not for shameful gain, but equally not domineering over those you're in charge of, but being examples to the flock.
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And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger be subject to elders, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.
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For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The same message Jesus left Peter with. Peter is leaving other pastors.
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See, that's what discipleship is, guys. That's what discipleship is. Discipleship is the knowledge and understanding and spiritual insight you have from the world, you share and teach someone else.
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Older men teach the younger men. Older women teach the young women. This is what Titus teaches us. Okay. Now, by the way, do you see the life change?
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Peter was the one having to be taught that in John 21. Now he's the one teaching that in 1
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Peter 5, 30 years later. See, he's not just a Christian where his salvation is between him and God alone, and he doesn't share it with anyone else.
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No, the message of the gospel is that we share it with others and we disciple those in God's church.
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Let's read some in 2 Peter, shall we? Notice the change in Peter's life from before and now.
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You see, at one point, Paul had to publicly shame, correct
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Peter for being a hypocrite with the Gentiles and the Jews, and you see this in Galatians 1.
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Well, Peter took that correction humbly and corrected himself, and we know that from the rest of Acts and from 2
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Peter. But I want to show you the different view Peter had of Jesus. Remember, there were times where Peter rebuked
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Jesus and said, hey, you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't do that, all this stuff. Well, then at the end, he says, Lord, you know everything.
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This is 2 Peter 1 .1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have attained the faith and equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let me say that again, that last line, our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter recognized that man he walked with 30 years ago is our
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God and Savior. How amazing is that? Look at Peter's view of the
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Scriptures. These next two are really awesome. I know this is a lot of Scripture, guys, but I'm just trying to show you how much
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Peter grew from the work of the Holy Spirit. This is still 2
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Peter 1, 16 -21. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. See if you can think about when this was.
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For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by majestic glory, this is my beloved
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Son in whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
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So when did Peter hear the voice of God from heaven speaking to Jesus? Yes, at the baptism, but also at the transfiguration on the holy mountain, right?
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He goes, guys, I was an eyewitness of that. And if you remember, Moses and Elijah showed up and Peter was like, hey, let's build three tabernacles.
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And then Moses and Elijah disappear and only Jesus is standing there. And the voice from heaven says, this is my beloved
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Son. Listen to him. I'm pleased in him. Verse 19, and we have this prophetic word fully confirmed, to which you would do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
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Verse 20 and 21, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from one's own interpretation.
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For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men. The men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. Peter recognizes that even though it's through the pens of men, that the scripture is theanoustos,
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God breathed. That men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. Prophecy does not come from one's own interpretation. Guys, if a pastor is ever preaching something contrary to the word of God and he says it's from the
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Holy Spirit, no, it is not. No prophecy ever comes from one's own interpretation.
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Ever. No prophecy is ever produced by the will of men. Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. If someone is preaching something that is contrary to the word of God, then what they're preaching is not from God.
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Let me say that again. If someone is ever teaching or preaching something that goes against the word of God, then what they're preaching or teaching is not of God.
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One more. Remember I told you that Paul once publicly corrected Peter in Galatians chapter 1?
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Here is an example of Christian humility. Peter took that and didn't hold bitterness in his heart for 20 years and never let it go.
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He corrected it. 2 Peter 3, 14 through 18.
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Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace, and count the patience of our
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Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
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There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do with other scriptures.
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You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away by the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in grace and knowledge of the
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. A lot there.
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Notice that he praises Paul and doesn't hold some petty bitterness in his heart. He actually forgives, just as the
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Lord has forgiven you. Actually, there is no need for him to forgive Paul, because Paul was in the right. He corrected himself.
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He took on correction. But notice the view of scripture here, and there's a few really cool things you notice.
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You notice that it says Peter has read Paul's letters, but Paul never wrote a letter to Peter that we know of.
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What does that prove about the New Testament works? They were circulated. The fact that Peter has read
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Ephesians, Colossians, all these books, because Peter was written in the 60s, and most of Paul's stuff has already been written by this point, except for maybe 2
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Timothy, maybe 1 Timothy and Titus. Peter has read these letters, which means the letters have been circulated, just like we've always taught.
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It's not like Paul wrote a letter to the church at Colossae, and it stayed in Colossae. They wrote a copy, kept the copy for themselves, and sent the original on.
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So Peter has read these letters that were written to other churches. But did you notice what
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Peter said about Paul's letters? This is internal evidence for the Bible, guys. External evidence is great, but let's look at the internal evidence first.
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First off, don't you love how Peter said, yes, some of Paul's stuff is hard to understand. I'm like, I can relate to that.
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Yes, it is. But Peter says in verse 16, Peter just called
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Paul's works scripture. Let me say that again. Did you catch that? Did you catch that? Peter said the unstable twist
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Paul's letters, as they do with the rest of scripture. Peter just equated
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Paul's work with the Old Testament, with Moses, with the testimony of Isaiah, with David, with Ezekiel, with Daniel.
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Peter just said they do. Because remember, Peter spoke a prophecy in scripture, speaking of the
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Old Testament, and he just equated Paul to that, that they twist it like they do the rest of scripture.
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Peter recognized that what Paul was writing was of God and of the Holy Spirit, not just of Paul. When people wrote the
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Bible, it was with their own personalities, their own writing style, grammar, etc.,
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vocabulary. But they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Every word that's in this Bible was placed there by God.
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It was breathed out by God through the pens of men. Remember we used this example before. Theion Eustachs, God breathed.
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When I'm speaking, I'm feeling my breath on my hand. I know it's not sanitary for some of you.
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I'm sorry. I feel my breath on my hand. When we say this is the
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Word of God, what we're saying is it's breathed out. It's God breathed. It's breathed out by God through the pens of men.
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Now, I know that was a blaze, but I wanted to show you there's a life of sanctification. We have Peter, who was a fisherman.
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God sanctified him to be one of the most powerful New Testament church apostles, church fathers we have.
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He wrote two books of the Bible. He's one of the main characters in Acts. He's spoken of in Galatians. He's spoken of in several of the other letters.
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Of course, he's a main character. Character makes it sound like that's a fake story. He's one of the main figures in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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A really important figure in the Bible. He was a fisherman. He didn't have formal education.
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But God used him because Peter, even though he fell, humbled himself and obeyed.
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And yeah, Peter messed up sometimes, guys. So do we. I remember one time someone asked me, which apostle do you relate with more,
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Paul or Barnabas? Guys, some days I relate with Judas. I betray my Lord sometimes.
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I'll be honest with you. But the mark of failure is not that you fall.
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The mark of failure is you fall and stay down. The righteous man gets up, doesn't he? Isn't that what Proverbs teaches us?
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Guys, when you fall, just like Peter, don't stay down. Get back up and keep going. Admit, confess to your brothers and sisters, hey,
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I messed up. I need help. I need accountability with this. And guys, that accountability needs to be at a local church in person.
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You need to be held accountable. Someone needs to be up in your grill saying, hey, how'd you do with this this week? Tell me the truth.
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Confess your faults one to another and you may be healed. If a brother be found in fault, you who are spiritual restore such one with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourself so you won't also be tempted.
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Peter lived that. We should too. There is no Christian that's perfect.
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I'm just a dude, a dude who God is using to do whatever God sees fit. My job is to obey.
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Which is hard. But just like I teach my two -year -old, she may not know the importance of it now, but I do.
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Just like I don't know the importance of obeying God all the time, God does. My job is to trust Him and obey. And real trust is not saying you trust
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Him. Real love is not saying you love Him. Real trust is obeying Him. All right, guys.
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I love Peter. I hope this was helpful and beneficial to you some way. As always,
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I love you guys. Tune in or come in person tomorrow. We had a lot of people at church last week. Tune in or come in person tomorrow at 1030 or 6 p .m.
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I love you guys very much, as always. I know these aren't live, the Sunday night ones. The Saturday question and answers are normally the live ones.
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But you can still put comments. I still go back and read all of them. Suggestions, things you want to learn about next.
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We're coming up a couple weeks on the canon of Scripture. And then I don't know what's after that.
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We'll see. Love you guys very much. I hope you have a good rest of your evening. Ponder the
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Scriptures. Pore over the Scriptures. Memorize. Dwell on the Scriptures. Not on man's word. Not even mine.