The Need To Stand Firm

Scripture

2 Peter 2:17–19 “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

2 Peter 3:17–18 “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Intro

Almost hitting a home run in t-ball

Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s right

We can be swayed by the enemies voice

Warnings Throughout Scripture to Stand Firm

Jesus said the one who endures will be saved.

Matthew 24:13 “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Paul, James, Peter, John, Jude, and the author of Hebrews all warn about not falling away

Avoid such people - 2 Timothy 3:8 “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.”

Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

James 5:11 “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.”

2 John 7–8 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.”

Jude 3 “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Letters to the 7 churches in Revelation

“To the one who conquers...” - this is said to every church

Revelation 12:11 “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

False Teachers Are Among Us

2 Peter 2:1 “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 destruction.”

Secretly - it is deceptive

Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

The most effective lies are twisted truth

We still hear this same question today, “Did God really say...”

2 Timothy 4:3–5 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

We like hearing that we have some control in the matter

What The Church Tolerates

Denying the divinity or humanity of Jesus

This is why we have the creeds

The serpent was trying to help Adam and Eve and God was holding them back

Your passions will lead you astray

Deny the atonement

Sin is a real problem

Prosperity preachers

Who doesn’t want to be rich?

Worshiping money

Follow your heart

Our hearts are deceitfully wicked

Being saved to a half-gospel - which isn’t the gospel

“You’re okay”

“Give your heart to Jesus and everything will work out”

The insufficiency of Scripture

“We need miracles”

People gather multiple beliefs from different religions - ex. yoga

Play nice with the world

If we stand firm on truth the world may not like us

It certainly won’t

Being Nice Would Not Be Nice

Everyone knows the world is crazy

The world makes no sense because it suppresses the truth, Romans 1:18

The world is evil because their father is the devil, John 8:44

We are to have compassion on the world and share the Gospel with them

People in the church is a whole other matter

2 Peter 2:1–3 “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 destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 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.”

These are people in the Church

They should know better

They are causing the way of truth to be blasphemed

They are preying upon people in the Church

2 Peter 2:12–16 “But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

Peter isn’t the only one

Matthew 23:33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

Jude 12–13 “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

How do you feel when someone mistreats your kids?

We have been lulled into acquiescence to the ways of the world

“We must be nice!”

“We must be tolerant!”

“We can’t reach the world if they think we’re mean!”

I have a question. How’s that working out for the church?

Meanwhile the enemy takes another foothold because we’re back-stepping our theology

How Now Shall We Live?

Increase in our knowledge of God - ch. 1

Read your Bible pray every day

Pray for discernment

1 John 4:1–3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

Stand firm

1 John 4:4 “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”