Peace, Purity, and Praise
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MIC
Prayer
As Peter concludes His letter, he reminds us of several things that he has already mentioned. Please open your Bibles with me to 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 13-18. [ pg 1217 in your pew Bible or pg 184-185 in the back of the skinny Bibles in the back of the room]
6 Slides (ending vs 18)
13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
15 and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness,
18 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.
We left of last week with verse 13 in which we were looking forward to the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells.
God promised us in Revelation 21.1-4.
4 Slides (ending vs 4)
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them,
4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
God is preparing a brand new heaven and new earth. It will be much better than what we have now. It will not be covered with pollution. even more ... In the new heaven and new earth there will be no longer be any death… no longer any mourning or crying or pain.
There will be no sickness.… and even better than that. God will make his tabernacle.. his abode with us and He will dwell with us forever.
Won’t that be fantastic. We will be able to walk right up to God and give Him our requests face to face.. but somehow I don’t think there will be many requests because we will be living in a perfect environment in a place where there is no sin.
for we are also told
4 Slides (ending vs 27)
24 And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it.
25 And in the daytime (for there shall be no night there) its gates shall never be closed;
26 and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;
27 and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Think of it.… nothing unclean… no one who practices abominations… no liars AND
We will be living with a God who already knows all of our needs and has provided for us all that we need. What could there possibly be left to ask from Him. and when we see all that He has prepared for us our only response will be to be overwhelmed with joy, and thankfulness, and praise.
and so yes we will be singing His praises. [pg 470]
as the song goes
There is coming a day,
When no heart aches shall come,
No more clouds in the sky,
No more tears to dim the eye,
All is peace forever more,
On that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There'll be no sorrow there,
No more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain,
No more parting over there;
And forever I will be,
With the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Won’t that be a fantastic Day!
and since that day is coming we need to be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.
We have talked about what it means “to be diligent” σπουδάζω It means to make every effort to accomplish something. To work tirelessly toward something… and what is that? what are we putting in all this effort toward. .…
to be found by Him at peace.
We can be found at peace because we know that we are saved.
We can be at peace because we know that God is in control. He has got our back.
God is our Father and chief shepherd.
We are at peace because our faith and our trust are in Him.
It will not be that way for the rest of the world who have been in rebellion against God. They truly will have something to fear on the day of the Lord! They will be facing the wrath of God, but that is not the way it will be for the children of God.
But that does not mean we have nothing to work for.
Our main goal is to be found spotless and blameless.
Spotless means that we do not want to be found with any flaws in our moral character.
Blameless would be without fault in regard to our moral reputation.
I am reminded of times when we were getting ready for a family photo when I was a child. It seems there was always some adult who would make sure that everything was perfectly straight. Our hair was combed. Our shirt nice and neat. No stray leaf or twig on our clothes. They wanted the picture to be perfect!
Or when my parents were having company over and they wanted our house to be all nice and neat. Nothing out of place.
This also applies with our attitude about the Lord’s return. Those of us who love the Lord… will want to be looking our best at His return. We want to get rid of any moral defects. Our goal is to be holy in all of our behavior even as He is holy.
2 Slides
15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
and as we are taught in 1 John 3.3.
Slide
3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
as I have said .. “to be without spot speaks of our moral character… while “blameless” refers to our reputation. What others think about us.
We all know that some people can have a good reputation even while they are full of sin on the inside. Our goal is to be good on the inside and therefore to be blameless on the outside. Our reputation should match who we are.
We are not to be like the hypocrites' who have a good reputation on the outside but inwardly are full of sin, and hate, and lust.
We strive to drive all sin far away from us… not only in our actions, but also in our thoughts and attitudes.
We do this because we will be called to give an account when the Lord returns just as the servants in the parable of the talents were called to give an account to their master upon his return.
For believers, then, the promise of Christ’s return serves as a powerful incentive for holy living.
After all, ...
future accountability and heavenly rewards are compelling motivations, encouraging believers to continually forsake sin and
diligently practice the means of grace.
and what are those “Means of grace?
By that I am referring to the time we spend in the Bible studying God’s word.
the time we spend in prayer,
the time we spend - not forsaking the assembling of our selves together, but encouraging one another.…
the time we spend witnessing and using our spiritual gifts to minister to the body of Christ and
just plain praising God in worship. and then applying what we learn to our lives.
We are thankful for God’s delay because we recognize that His delay is for our salvation and to give our family and friends an opportunity to repent and turn to God. just as it is written...
Slide
15 and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
Paul alludes to this patience of God in Romans when He points out that it is already the hour for us to awaken from our sleep. We need to put aside the deeds of darkness.
2 Slides
11 And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
He also alludes to it in 1 Corinthians 7 when he talks about our time on this earth has already been shortened.
3 Slides
29 But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;
30 and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess;
31 and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.
Jesus, Himself, called us to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
and so as Paul teaches us
Slide
2 for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you” ; behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation” —
God had Peter write this letter to us to warn us. We need to take this as an opportunity to exam our own lives and ask ourselves if we have truly placed our faith in Jesus. Are we following Him… or just giving Jesus lip service and doing what we want to do? Jesus said
Slide
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
and again
2 Slides
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
If you are one of these people who thinks that they are saved, while knowingly living in disobedience to the Lord, you need to think again.
As Christians our goal is to be holy even as He is holy.
Does this mean I will be perfect. No.. but that is my goal.. that is what I am striving after… this is what it means to be diligent.. I am striving to be the person that God created me to be.
I am striving to purify myself even as he is pure.
So when we read in
Slide
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.
That is what we strive for.
We strive to be more loving, more kind… full of compassion.
We look for ways to share God’s love with those around us.
We share the gospel with those we come into contact with.
The time of Jesus’s return is nearer than it has ever been! Judgment day is very real and coming quickly. and so we warn our friends that now is the time to repent… tomorrow may be one day.… to late!
and so I remind you of the ABC’s of salvation...
A- Admit that I am a sinner in need of God’ saving grace
B- Believe - I place my faith in Jesus and in God.
I believe that He is smarter than me
I believe that He is far wiser than me
I believe that He can see the future and I cannot
I believe that God loves me sooooo much that He sent His Son to earth to live a perfect life, to never sin, and to pay the price for my sin by dying on the cross.
Jesus rose again and He will raise me from the dead and make me a joint heir with Christ in His kingdom if I place my faith in Him and follow Him.
C- Commit - For this reason I commit my life to Jesus and to God. I commit my life to them and make them the Lord of my life not just for this moment, not just for this day… but forever.
Have you done that?
If not… I invite you to do that now.
Peter also confirms the inspiration of Paul’s letters and puts them on par with the other scriptures. You could call this the first testimonial that Paul’s letters are part of the canon. That they are part of the scriptures and belong in our New Testament.
2 Slides
15 … just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
When you read Paul’s letters that can be difficult to understand. He has sentences that run for half a page. Therefore sometimes it takes time just to figure out what He is saying. I find it helpful sometimes to diagram it out or to outline it...… just to help me understand what he is saying.
We will be studying Romans next and Paul asks a question in chapter 3. “what is the advantage of being a Jew” He starts to answer the question by pointing out that first of all they were entrusted with the word of God… but then He seems to get distracted.. What if some did not believe? He doesn’t get around to answering the rest of that question until chapter 9. That is a long pause between asking the question and answering the question. It can be difficult to understand… but none the less, it is scripture.
As a result, the untaught and unstable will distort as they do to the rest of scripture.
They will often do this by emphasizing one truth while ignoring the other side of that same truth.
For example. —- We are saved by grace.
or “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Are these statements true?
Yes they are… but that does not mean that I can then ignore what Paul calls “the obedience of faith”
It does not mean that I can write off or minimize such statements also by Paul that say...
3 Slides
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
You can not just say… I’m saved.. I have eternal life… I don’t need to worry about these things.
I do not need to worry about controlling my anger. It is ok if I get drunk after all I’m saved.
God did not save us so that we can continue in our sins.
or as Paul also says in Romans
2 Slides
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
So then… how does this affect me?
We need to be on our guard!
Slide
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness,
or as he warned us back in 1 peter
Slide
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
We need to long for the pure mild of the word so that we won’t be deceived by their lies.
Slide
2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
Finally, we need to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Slide
18 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.
I go back to Romans 12.1-2.
2 Slides
1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Instead of falling prey to these false teacher.…
We are to grow in both grace (allowing God to work in our lives) and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
We double down on our time in Bible Study and in memorizing scripture so that we won’t be carried away by their false teaching.
We are careful who we listen to.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and we are followers of “The Way.”
Why… because
Our goal is to glorify Him both now and into all of eternity.
He is worthy of all our praise.
Is this your wish?
It should be!
and that goes for me as well.
Let’s pray
