2 Peter 1:1-11 Internal threats to God’s Church - Part II

Map

Review

Peter is urgently writing to the Church of Christ that the Lord has given them everything they need to continue the mission after his departure. God has given them faith and has promised them eternal security in return for their obedience and service.

What was going on at the time?

Peter is facing death; The apostles were dying off. Satan attacking from within and without

James, head of the church in Jerusalem, had been executed.

Roman persecution was happening

AD 62, Death of James, brother of Jesus.

AD 64-67, death of Paul in Rome

AD 64 Nero persecutes Christians in Rome

Why was Peter writing

First letter was about persecution from outside the church. This one is about problems within the visible church

False teachers were trying to gain a following in the church

They were apostate

They were out for worldly gain

Question: What are the internal threats to the Christian Church

Answer: The most serious threats come from false teachers in the church, who are seeking personal gain

2 Peter 1:1–4 (NASB95)

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

1. God has provided us the means to defend His church

Explanation

Knowledge of God and Christ, God has blessed us with divine power to pursue a life of godliness

God, in His glory and excellence, has called us, and that calling comes through His word. We can only draw closer to God through the knowledge of His word.

Promises are the conduit to the divine nature. He keeps His promises if we are obedient to Him.

Mounce: The promises have been given so that through them you may participate in the divine nature. This is an amazing claim. Peter says that by means of the promises given to us by God we are able to share his nature

Eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once justified, we have already entered the kingdom, being lively stones and operating the new Temple as priests. We are a peculiar people of God's own choosing.

In the Christian faith, God has promised us salvation if only we repent of our sins and turn to Him in righteousness. How do we properly repent of our sins?

It is not acknowledging them and seeking forgiveness

It is turning away from them to follow the righteousness of our Saviour. How do we do that? Thru the knowledge of His Word.

By turning to Christ, we are able to pursue a life of righteousness and escape the power of sin

Illustration:

A child says I’m sorry, but does not repent. He is sorry because he is being punished, not because he did wrong or sinned.

We want the child not to just be sorry, but to stop his or her bad behaviour.

Argumentation:

Wrong way: do more good than bad to earn God’s favor. Try to compensate for our sin with good deeds

Do good deeds more than you sin

Application/Exhortation

To grow as disciples and followers of Christ, we must stay in His word. Teaching, preaching, reading, meditating

Jesus promises His followers salvation, if they believe the Gospel. It is the knowledge of His word that reveals the Gospel to us.

Salvation from hell/for eternal life in heaven

Believing the Gospel means doing the Gospel - must have knowledge - WWJD is meaningless if you don’t know what Jesus would do.

Slide

2 Peter 1:5–9 (NASB95)

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

2. The Character traits God is building in you

Explanation:

Explain the attributes

Sanctification is the building of these qualities

Justification means that God has saved you. No one is justified, but not sanctified - if Jesus really touches your heart, and you turn to Him, you will be sanctified over time.

Calvin - Add to your faith virtue, or, Supply to your faith virtue. He shews for what purpose the faithful were to strive, that is, that they might have faith adorned with good morals, wisdom, patience, and love

Calvin: virtue means an honest and rightly formed life.

Calvin: For if these things be in you. Then, he says, you will at length prove that Christ is really known by you, if ye be endued with virtue, temperance, and the other endowments. For the knowledge of Christ is an efficacious thing and a living root, which brings forth fruit.

This is a conditional promise. These qualities will make you an effective Christian.

It then follows, that those who do not strive for a pure and holy life, do not understand even the basics of the Christian faith.

If we lack these qualities, we are unqualified for service for Christ. To be fit for service, we must remember and practice these qualities. We must reconform to His image

we ought to differ from the unbelieving, as God has separated us for himself. Though, then, we daily sin, and God daily forgives us, and the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins, yet sin ought not to rule in us, but the sanctification of the Spirit ought to prevail in us;

Illustration: Enlisting in military service

Preparing to soldier

What if no preparation?

Argumentation:

The heresy of easy believism

Justification: Redeem you from sin

Sanctification: Makes you fit for fellowship with God

Application/Exhortation: Peter gives us the application in the next text

2 Peter 1:10–11 (NASB95)

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

3. Perseverance - Finishing the race

Explanation:

In Ephesians, Paul tells us that we Christians were chosen in Christ before the beginning of time.

Ephesians 2:8–10 (NASB95)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Created us for good works

God expects us to do our part to work to develop godliness.

A conditional promise that if we are sanctified, we will be glorified.

Romans 8:28–30 NASB95

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

God gives us the ability to fulfill our end of His promises - but He expects us to obey.

Calvin: “God, by ever supplying you abundantly with new graces, will lead you to his own kingdom.”

Illustration: The parable of the drowning man, also known as Two Boats and a Helicopter, is a short story, often told as a joke, most often about a devoutly Christian man, frequently a minister, who refuses several rescue attempts in the face of approaching floodwaters, each time telling the would-be rescuers that God will save him. After turning down the last, he drowns in the flood. After his death, the man meets God and asks why he did not intervene. God responds that he sent all the would-be rescuers to the man's aid on the expectation he would accept the help, highlighting the axiom that God acts through humans and other earthly entities.

Argumentation:

God helps those who help themselves. Not a Bible saying. (Ben Franklin)

That’s not biblical, as in the story above, we see that God will provide for us, but we must be obedient. God helps those who can’t help themselves.

Hyper Calvinism

Application/Exhortation:

James 1:21–22 “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”

Don’t just believe God’s word - do God’s word. It’s why He gave it to us.

Conclusion

In this letter, Peter is preparing Christ’s followers to carry on to the next generation and beyond

We have everything to do His will, and we have His promises.

We need to grow in grace and sanctification: faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, brotherly love and Christian love

Even though He has blessed us mightily, we must be obedient to His will.

As we practice these things, we become assured of our salvation

Gospel Appeal

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 10:9–13 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””