2 Peter, 3:14-16
Bradley W. Maston · Jun 10, 2007
1 & 2 Peter (2006-07), No. 36
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49260293355

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, so, today I'll just read the verse to us. Today we're looking at 2 Peter 3, 14-16, which reads as follows, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. 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 with the rest of scriptures, to their own destruction."

So this is a cool passage. There's a lot of fun stuff that we get to talk about today, and that come up in this passage, some that don't really come up elsewhere as clearly. So this is really exciting, exciting stuff. So Peter just spent the better part of the final chapter, the second letter, how about that? The final chapter, the second letter, okay, telling his readers and us about the series of events surrounding and including Christ's second coming. Peter writes surely and certainly about the end times as he did about the things that he saw in person, which is really an amazing thing about the Word of God, isn't it?

I mean, it flows seamlessly from, hey, I saw this, it was there, concretely, we touched it, we felt it, and then moves all the way into eschatology, something that they could not have necessarily in the same sense seen, touched, and just speaks with the exact same amount of certainty. The Bible doesn't draw lines between, yep, this is what we really know, this is what really happened, and this is what we think might happen. It's all written with the same certainty. The biblical writers just saw it all as one, this God-revealed body of knowledge. So it's pretty fascinating, or pretty amazing, I guess you should say. And he's equally confident in his knowledge in the end times as he is about everything else that the Holy Spirit has given him.

Has anybody read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? Not even one? Is that statistically possible? It's like 7 billion copies of that book have been sold. Not one of them was sold to anyone in this room? Yeah, but that's not how many were read. That's just how many were bought for high school graduations and then immediately put under a dorm table to keep it level.

Yeah, you know, I wouldn't put it on the must-reads before you go either list. Nevertheless, though, he starts one of his habits. Which part do you have to tear off? Get right under that table, keep everything level. You won't miss the pages because you weren't going to read it anyway. It's all good.

My next question was, does anybody remember which habit was, because I don't, was begin with the end in mind, but obviously we don't is as much an appropriate way to say. One of his habits, though, is begin with the end in mind. When you start something, know where you're going. When you begin a project, or a task, or a job, or anything, know what your goal is. Know where you're headed.

I would say that this is something that's infinitely more true of our highly effective Lord. Where God's message differs from Covey's, however, is that the Lord places the end in the endless eternity, in the new creation. God declares the end from the beginning and everything He has done has been working towards the purpose that He has laid out. We find that this can also be applied in our lives. Sorry, we know about and are called to live now in view of this coming endless end and we have studied in previous weeks The end is coming as surely as there was a beginning and furthermore.

We know that is under God's control and influence None of this is a surprise to him and nothing is going to stand in the way of his plans That truth should have practical application in our lives. We never need to wonder if God has goofed or changed his mind or lost the reins. We have full confidence and assurance of his sovereignty. We can rest in the worldview that is being completely reliable. because He is completely reliable as well.

This is an amazing thing. I mean, I think there's a fair amount of wisdom to Kavi saying, begin with the end in mind. I mean, when you start a project, if you don't know where you're going, or you don't know where you want to go, you just kind of will flander in it, or meander about, or find kind of, oh, I like to do this now, I like to do this now. But the Lord, is not cyclical in his view, as maybe the Eastern view would be, cyclical in his view of human history. It's not cyclical in his view of time. It has a beginning, and it has an end, and in that end is the endless end, entrance into eternity.

And everything that we are a part of, as the saved people, as saints of him, is working towards that end, towards his glory, towards honoring him, and towards knowing him. I just think that's pretty fascinating that there's so much focus on that end in the Bible. And so many churches, at least here in America, are so easy to dismiss everything about the end. and say, well, we don't know, or we don't like to talk about, we just like to focus on the here and now, and we'll see that there's great spiritual detriment. People miss out on a lot of the wonderful Word of God and wonderful spiritual benefits of knowing that.

So let's move on to 2 Peter 3.14. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.

We all don't come from the same background, obviously. I came from a background where doctrine was sort of a dirty word, kind of in the more loose evangelical mindset. We don't want to define anything, we don't want to alienate anybody. So what would you say the world, or maybe even just modern Christendom, today's Christendom, thinks of doctrine?

Oh, yeah, exactly. We just fight about it. It's narrow-minded. Oh, it's narrow-minded, absolutely. We hear that all the time. Oh, you're so narrow-minded. How do you know you're the only one who knows what this book says? What do you mean it only says one thing? Narrow-minded causes divisions. Anybody else have any other? Tedious. We just have to get it right, agree with it, and know it. Absolutely. Oh, stiff-necked. Oh, wow. That's pretty harsh. Stiff-necked. Wow.

I think, and I think that's exactly what's being displayed here, is that culturally speaking, the word doctrine has lost its true meaning and gained all of this stigma, some of it which is true. I mean, you take the fact that doctrine causes divisions. Yes, it's doctrine that divides us, as believing Christians, from Mormons. That's doctrine, right? Doctrine divides. Yes, thank God. Doctrine divides! And when you look at it... Absolutely.

I saw a funny guy. He was a kind of holy rollertype and he sat on my college campus and I Actually, it turned out, doctrinally, he was just wacky. But he did have a fun sign. He had this sign that said, do you believe in absolute truth? And of course, some postmodernist kid would say, no, I don't believe in absolute truth. He'd flip the sign and say, so is evolution absolutely true? It's kind of cute. One of those signs Snoopy would carry around. Exactly. One of my other favorite theologians, after Winnie the Pooh.

So I think we've really got at the root and I know that here we've already hashed this out probably a couple times over but it's just so true that it bears repeating that are so relevant that it bears repeating that in the world out there, I mean, I know there's definitely a lot of people in my life, whom I used to work with in young life, who have kind of a similar aspect, like, you're just so stiff-necked. How can you be so close-minded?

How can you, you know, how can you reject X, Y, and Z, new, you know, whatever it is, the new, purpose-driven prayer of Jabez and what would Jesus do on top of it. I mean, how can you reject that stuff? That's just, that's just, that's the lifeblood of some people's Christianity and how can you say that that's not the best thing in the world?

Because of that, you know, because of the book and because of doctrine, because doctrine has become a dirty word. I've almost taken the, using the word teaching or, you know, belief in place of doctrine because that more carries the essence of what the word really means without the baggage that sometimes close, or sometimes around. Yeah, so anyway.

So this brings us to the question, why did God reveal this to us, all this end times business? Was it just so that we wouldn't be surprised when it happened? Was it so that we would have lots of fodder for prophecy conferences, which are so much fun? Was it to satisfy our natural curiosity about the future? Or does God have a practical purpose? for revealing this to us? Is there a rubber-meets-the-road, in-our-walk purpose to that revelation to us?

So many are turned off by the word doctrine because they take it to mean a sort of absorption in details that has no consequence in life. You just want to be smarter than everyone else. And I guess what we're getting at here, which we've already kind of established, but It's the fact that doctrine was never meant to be a lofty, just, oh yeah, I know about that. Oh, I'm smarter than everyone else because I know when the world's going to end, or what it's going to be like when it does, or da-da-da-da-da.

It's all meant to have practical involvement and application in our life. As Verne, you know, continually says, take it personally. Just take it personally. I mean, it's not just that the Lord's coming back, it's that He's coming back for me. In my difficult situation or my hard situation or whatever, it's not just that, hey, the Lord's coming back or the Lord's got control, it's that He's got control of me, that I'm in His hand. So I would encourage us to do that as we do that. It's just one of my weak points in life, so it's something that I strive towards.

Yeah, so it's not a toy to make us feel smarter or entertained, but it's rather like milk to a baby, as 1 Peter 2.2 talked about. is for nourishment and application, not for the foundation of spiritual pride so that we can identify ourselves as the Bible know-it-alls of the Christian world. So here's the question. What sort of application does the Holy Spirit give us through Peter after this huge revelation of things to come? Peter spells some of it right out for us.

I didn't lose my place, that was a real question. Every man that has a soul purifies himself as he is pure. Purifies himself as he is pure, yeah. What did he talk about in the last letter? Be made holy as I am holy. Oh, that's absolutely godliness. I like that a lot. I think that's right on. Peter's just saying right here, hey, you're found in him, spotless and blameless. And we'll actually move on to even some of those other applications. Okay. This is awesome. Thanks, Nancy.

The therefore here clearly relates to the verses that were given before it. So he's talking, he's immediately referencing all the stuff in the chapter previous to this, prior to this. We're given this assurance against scoffers, and we're assured of the certainty of Christ's return, and now Peter brings it down to where the rubber meets the road. Therefore, here is pointing back to that knowledge.

As if the logical connective were not enough, he inserts the believers are to be looking for these things. So looking here is in the active voice, which I just love when Scripture uses the active voice, and I don't know why. Looking is in the active voice. It's not as if, I mean, I don't know about you.

Oftentimes in life I make these passive, wouldn't it be nice if Jesus came back today? Or I'll be sitting and just passively going, oh, wouldn't it be great if... And the realization is that it's an aggressive, it's looking towards it. Christ could come back right now, today. There's a reality there. I'm not trying to be dogmatic about it, but it's like Most certainly. It's here, and it could happen at any time. I mean, I think, gosh, who was it, LeHay? LeHay wrote this series of books that just pretty clearly laid out, hey, look, If the Lord took us all up right now, all the prophecies could be fulfilled.

No. The temple has to be rebuilt, I thought. That could happen post-rapture. That could most certainly be a post-rapture. And you've got to remember also, there was a riary that said, the temple could be turned into a functioning temple in a day or two. I mean, it could be just a sham erection of, you know, some drywall and, you know, they could get it done. really quickly and turn it into a functioning holy temple. And then, like Herod's temple, they spent the next 70 years, or 80 years, or 100 years, many, many years, about 80 years, building this functioning temple. And because it was a functioning temple, they had to have trained Levites come in and do all the work. So you had to train a priest. to do construction or do mortar work and then send him in there to do it.

Boy, it would be hard on pastors these days. Thank heavens we're separate from Israel. Is it Temple Mount Faithful that did that? Yeah, so there's people who, I mean, they could run a warehouse. Praise the Lord. Talk about prepared. That's fantastic. So anyway, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, and that could, I don't know, that could happen before the rapture as well with equal... Yeah, scriptural, but what starts the tribulation is the agreement, the covenant, not the construction. Right. So there could be a gap between the rapture and the tribulation starting of as long as possible possible.

So, yeah. So there it is. Marvelous, marvelous. Which, yeah, there we go. Good enough. So looking here is in the present, oh did we address any other questions, comments, complaints? Let's move forward. Alright so I'm sure it looks like most of us here I think have had children, and the rest of us have probably been a child at one point. That's right.

Do you remember as a child, or remember, I'd imagine, as I'm really kind of anxiously awaiting this time when Caden starts getting excited about Christmas, but can you imagine or remember what Christmas was like? When did Christmas really start for you as a kid? Anybody? Well, it happened to me on my first day too, and I thought, what a kid! Fair enough, that's harsh.

For me, I think Christmas started around October 20th. Like that's when I was a kid and I started going, I wonder when Christmas is coming, I'm so excited. And I mean, you know, November was just painful with anticipation and I just would think about it and talk about when can we go get the tree, when can we go get the tree, when can we do this, when can we do that. I mean, Christmas was a winter thing, or a late fall and early winter thing, not so much just today. which it kind of becomes maybe as we grow up a little bit, unless you can say this to me. I mean, it's the vacation from school, it is the gifts, it's the family being around, it's all these things and when you're a kid and you don't have all these years of kind of heartache and disappointment and frustration and having been let down so many times, you're going, oh, this is going to be the best thing ever and you sit there in joyful anticipation and what do we do as adults? We say, Calm down. It's not for two more months. Just forget about it. It'll come faster if you just don't think about it. And we don't realize, at least my parents would tell me that, to no avail. Absolutely no avail. I'd still dream about it at night and just everything was lived in joyful anticipation.

And you know, the funny thing about it is, is that Christmases, I mean, I definitely over the years have slowly lost that, whether it's through just like, okay, I've had 21 Christmases, it's really not all that, or whether it's something else having to do with Christmas isn't as fun anymore, because now it's a day off instead of two weeks. I don't know. Maturity. The nicest word I know for creeping death. No, it's true, though.

It's absolutely true. But, you know, the reality is that those Christmases, when I just anticipated them, thought on them, and just all that time up there was joyful anticipation. I mean, it made for the best Christmases of my life, as I look back. Now, maybe it was a little bit more shallow, or a little bit more this, or childish, or whatever, but the reality is that the joy of Christmas Day you know, was so much more a part of who and what I was and what I was about. I'd wake up on November the 29th and think, oh in a few more days we'll be into December. Then we can start that little Santa cotton ball calendar and that'll really make time fly. It gave me joy of anticipation. I think that's a That's something that we need to emulate.

Like I say, we lose that joy and that anticipation for Christmas through constant disappointment, through distraction, through all these other things. We have a Christmas Day feast that is unable to disappoint. And I can't speak for anyone but myself, I don't live in the constant joyful anticipation that that day is coming. that there's going to be an amazing feast. It's so easy for me to get distracted by just what's here and now. Just put your head down, look at your feet, and it'll come here faster. That's not what's asked of us. And that it and that it and it's coming I just I if we get nothing out of this morning.

And isn't it sad that we don't live in that? Because I know, as you began to talk about this, my heart starts to race a little bit, and I start getting really excited. Would that be the coolest thing ever? And of course it would be. But why don't we live in that anticipation, knowing that it could be? Because first of all, we're directed to.

But secondly, it's a great attitude. You're excited. You're anticipating things. You're going to have an attitude that We have, you know, you mentioned that this is something that's kind of childlike anticipation that kind of gets beat down. The reality is there is nothing to beat down this anticipation, except things in this world. This is not something about which there's some disappointment that comes and crashes. No, it is something that ought to grow.

My grandfather compared it to funnels. that this is something that as we grow in the Lord, the funnel gets bigger. It's turned that way. For the unbeliever, it goes the other way. But we as believers have every reason to grow in our anticipation of the Lord. And that's one of the reasons our bodies don't work as well. It helps us grow in our anticipation. Praise the Lord.

That's awesome. Oh my, that's fantastic. We'll move forward unless anyone would like to disagree. Ah, didn't think so. Cool, alright, the results are in. So we find diligent here, or be diligent, as an imperative. Who can define imperative for us? What's an imperative? Must be done, like a command, what's that? Important, absolutely, it attaches importance to it. I like both those definitions. Does anyone have anything to add? If it doesn't happen, there will be consequences. If it doesn't happen, there will be consequences. I think that's a... Yeah.

Doug, did you have something to add? Nancy singled you out. Oh, sorry. Command. Command. Awesome, command. It's an appeal to your will, right? It's a command. Do it or don't do it, but I'm telling you, you should do it. So here, diligence is an imperative. It's important. It's a command. It's telling you that you should pursue this, whether as a means or an end. So by the fundamentals of Greek grammar, it conveys an appeal to the will.

And in the footnote here, footnote section, you'll say, in every instance in which Paul or Peter wrote to another about their diligence, it was an imperative or takes its force from an imperative. You will find instances in scripture of Peter Paul saying, I have been diligent, or I'm trying to be diligent, which are not obviously imperatives per se. So if you just take your words diligent, you won't find them all as imperatives. But every time they're using them directed towards something else, it's an imperative.

It's an appeal to will. So, just to guard against any silliness that might come in from outside, this is not suggesting in any way that a lack of diligence will cause our salvation to be revoked, for that would be absolutely impossible. Once again, these imperatives are not imperatives of, okay, do this and then you'll be saved, or do this and then, or do this to prove it, or whatever it is.

These are logical arguments based on the completed fact and an irreversible certainty of a believer's eternal position and the certainty of their future. So like we've talked about, you know your position. We've laid out, you know, Peter laid out, Paul lays out, lays out in some way or shape or form position. It's more an implicit thing in Peter for sure. But his point is walk in it, be diligent. When you are walking in the Spirit, when you are submitting to Christ, when you are being diligent, you are being yourself as God made you to be.

When you're not, the only description for it that I can think of is spiritual insanity. It's a starving person standing before a full meal going, I'm so hungry. No. It's insane. It's beyond any logical reconciliation. When we walk in the flesh, it's not... Once again, speaking for myself, entire days lost to walking in the flesh without allowing myself to be reset and starting to walk in the Spirit. point of perfection or anything. But at the same time, the minute you step out of it, you go, wow, that was just crazy.

Reboot with the Bible. I like that. You need to reboot with the Bible. Romans 12, 1 and 2. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And Arnold Fruchtenbaum said that word transformed, if you were writing it in the modern parlance, you might have used the word reprogram yourself, reboot yourself, what is it? Reformat yourself and use this data, not the other data. Completely wipe and reboot.

So yeah, absolutely. I love that. Thank you very much. Alright, so, we have assurance that this is going to happen. If we truly believe this, we're truly resting and abiding in the truth that has been revealed to us. It would be madness to do other than what is expressed here. The word diligent is spurazzo.

We've seen it in 2 Peter 1.10 and 1.15, and it's a consistent effort, conveying that we make an ongoing act of will to be found in Him in peace, by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. Our knowledge of the imminence of the Lord's coming should cause us to live intentionally, consistent with our anticipation, and not haphazardly. Our position is eternal and fully assured, however, We are called to make an act of will, which is an exercise of faith, and so to be conformed in our daily condition to our eternal position. It is clear that some will be found in Christ, yet have made no consistent act of will to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will escape only with their eternal lives, having invested nothing in eternity, while others will reap the reward of their diligence in pursuing a knowledge of Christ and being in fellowship with Him.

It's 1 Corinthians 3.10-15 and also the Philippians passages there say, what is it, who was it that said a lot of people get into heaven naked and smoking?

They get there, they're happy to be there, but everything that they've constructed has been of the flesh. I think, what's that? Burned up! I think there's a lot of people, I think a lot of people in their ministry today, you know, they might be in vocational ministry, or full-time ministry, or part-time ministry, I think a lot of the things that we thought were the big important things in our ministry will be just wood, hay, and stubble.

Yeah, you know, God might honor it here and there, bless it here and there, but I think there's a lot of times where he's saying, you did that out of your flesh, and I'm really not interested in that. I'm really not interested in good works out of your flesh. That doesn't do much for me. Now, if you were to abide in me and teach my word and abide in me and do my ministry, do my work, by my empowerment, that doesn't burn. That's not wood, hay and stubble. Does anyone have anything to add to that? Tom, you seem to raise your hand for a second. Okey-dokey. Alright, fellowship, fellowship, fellowship, fellowship.

Having once believed that the Lord, that we are given our position, if we continue to live as carnal Christians, pleasing every lust and desire of our flesh, we are unable to experience the joy and communion of knowing Him. We know that we have constant forgiveness and cleansing in Him, and we come before Him and agree with God's assessment, as we come before Him and agree with God's assessment, that our sins, often translated, confess in 1 John 1.9, and we are restored to fellowship with Him.

Just to recap, often we hear 1 John 1.9 translated, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That word confess isn't any manner of Go to a confessional and confess to your priest and forgive me father for I've sinned it's been nine days since my last confession Whatever that's not the kind of confession. He's talking about the kind of confession is it's the words homologo. It's the same word agree with God say the same thing as God about your sins and he's faithful and just and will forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness and I was just thinking recently, we're in a building that's like 12 stories tall and it's got this neat feature where you open up a door in the utility room wall and you take the trash and you drop it and it just goes down.

Cool. Nancy and I, when it's time to take out the garbage, we don't sit there and go through every little piece and think about it and contemplate it and treasure it in our hearts. We'd say, is this garbage? Yeah. Is it ready to go? Yeah. We take it and put it in the trash chute and pull.

Away it goes. It falls several floors down and splatters. But we don't worry about it, it's gone. All we have to do is, we agree it's garbage, it's time to go out. And then it's on with life. We don't get occupied for some chunk of time. So confessing our sins is not some time where we sit there and contemplate and ponder the garbage. Confessing our sins is, is this garbage? Yeah, okay, on with the next thing. Because our life should not consist of taking the garbage out. A practice that would probably make our hands stink anyway. Yes. Yeah. You know, sometimes you're so guilty and it's hard to get rid of. You know, so you turn it over to God and you don't worry anymore and then you take it back and worry some more. It's really hard to not think about it.

Well, I think the thing is, I mean, that's a good point. The question is, is God has dealt with it. When Christ said it is finished, was it really finished? Did he mean it? And it's really a matter of believing him. And we're so caught up in this. And you know, I am clean about it. I can take it back, I can beat myself up, I'm just virtual, I'll tell you that.

But the conclusion that I finally recognized is that when we do that, what are we doing? We're just continuing in sin. If we don't believe that God has done away with that. Was it sin, whatever thing I did or didn't do? Yeah, it was. But if I don't believe that he dealt with that as he dealt with every other unrighteous act ever, thought, whatever, then that's just more sin. And it's still hard for me, but I finally recognize what that is.

You've got the key word on the top of the page. The Lord is not wanting us to behold the garbage. The Lord wants us to behold him. Why? It's fellowship that counts. And that can't happen if we're beholding the garbage. Oh, well, we'll be holding the garbage. It's marvelous.

Well, we're so programmed by, you know, like, if you goof up with, maybe not you, if I goof up with my wife and do something, it's something really bad. The toilet seat was up three times in a row and it's just awful. Sometimes... And sometimes, sorry just doesn't cut it. You know, I say, oh honey, I'm really sorry. I know, but I'm still mad at you.

And there's like a 20-minute period where she just needs to cool off. God doesn't need cool-off time like that. I mean, in our interpersonal relationships, I know sometimes when someone frustrates me, I need to cool off. and then forgive them. Or, you know, take a little time to center myself or get myself thinking right. But God doesn't need to do that. He doesn't spend time thinking wrong. Thank heavens. So it's really cool. And I completely agree.

I struggle with the same thing. We think that there's like this waiting period. Okay, I sinned, I confessed, and in 24 hours I'm back in fellowship. No. I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one who does that. But it's just like, oh, great, I goofed up again. I'm going to have to wait another 36 hours before I can open my Bible. Maybe I'm the only one. But still, I grew up feeling like that was the way. Like I had to wait until I felt God's forgiveness of my sins before I could go back to Him in prayer or whatever. It's foolishness. Yeah, for lack of a better term. It's absolute foolishness. Okay.

Alright, so, we know, as we go to the last line in that fellowship, we also know that it is by our walking in the Spirit that we can have freedom from the reign of sin nature and its desires. It's Galatians 5, 16 and 17. If you go down to the footnote, this is, I believe also, the New Testament talks about reckoning ourselves dead in sin and alive to God, Romans 6, 1 through 11, and also abiding in Him. John 15, 4.

This is a trust in the revealed facts, like Brian was saying. It's a trust that what he says, he means. And it's not like in those interpersonal relationships, when you get someone who's passive-aggressive, says, no, it's okay. And then the next time you find a huge dent in your car or something, it's not as if God is saying, no, it's okay. And then he's going to throw a lightning bolt down at you later when you least expect it. God's not passive-aggressive. God doesn't say yes and mean kind of. He's said yes in the Bible to this forgiveness issue.

So, moving on to 2 Peter 3.15-16.

So quickly. And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. and also, as also, in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, which are, as some things, hard to understand, which the untaught and the unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures, to their own destruction." I love the evangelistic heart of Peter.

He spends the entire last verse saying, Hey, rejoice! As you look on these things, be diligent in peace and this whole thing, this whole end times thing, the Lord's got it all in hand and this is a wonderful and powerful and joyful thing and it should give us hope in our darkest situations and in our best days. And oh by the way, as long as you're waiting and you're rejoicing and you're waiting and you're loving the anticipation of that and being diligent in that, realize that every second we wait here, the Lord could be bringing someone else to salvation.

Every second we wait isn't like a wasted second. We're not just killing time until God gets here, like, is this bus coming or not? No, it's not just a killing time thing. God is using this time to reach out and bring His Word through dozens of mysteries and mostly through your life and through my life to the non-believers throughout the world.

And it's fantastic. that even this time that we're in now as we wait in joyful anticipation is a joyful time because this is the chance, the window of opportunity is closing and may soon be closed when people can make that decision for the Lord. Obviously, the next anticipated biblical prophecy event is what? The Rapture, right? And then you get the Tribulation, right?

Seven years in which anyone who says, no, I don't think the Bible's true, will be saying it purely because they don't want to. There'll be no, no, no, there's no excuse now. There'll be no excuse then, right? God's not unfair. Well, you can never say God's unfair, because fair would be to just throw the whole thing, right? But the reality of the matter is that there's this window. That's it. Well I was just thinking, God really, kind of as we think of fairness, I think he really is fair. Because he gives every single opportunity. And we're the ones who choose to reject him. If we reject him, it's our choice, not his. And in his righteousness, that's the way he does it.

Yeah. How awesome is that? Randy Alcorn is a, I think he's a pastor, but he also is an author, and he's written some fiction books. And in one of the books that I read, he had a picture of a man who had thoroughly rejected Christ, mocked him, scorned him, and then he died. And he's going to hell. And he goes, well, this isn't fair.

God should have let me. Oh. He did give me every opportunity. And I thought it was a really great picture The way God does it. Absolutely. I disagree with being fair because if God was fair, I wouldn't have a chance. And that's the truth. You and I can discuss this later because I don't think you're wrong. I just have some more to add. Oh wow. If fair was true, then grace wouldn't be there. But he follows the rules, that's what I'm saying. He set the rules, he follows the rules and that's fair. And I would say that God shows also His immense patience with it. Just like Peter says here, it's about His patience. And it's definitely way beyond fair. I mean, it's more than fair. When we talk about fair, I think we're talking about like a fair chance, not so much justice. But did you have a fair chance to hear this and respond to it?

And the answer is, yeah, lots, right? I mean, when God prophesied that He was going to bring Israel up and take Canaan, He said, but wait, we're going to wait. some serious time, because the sin of the Canaanites is not full. They're going to get their fair chance to turn. And the last number of those years, they know there's this group of nomadic Israelites running around in the desert, just waiting to come in. They had their fair chance. They could have turned to God. They could have turned away from Moloch.

They could have said, those guys are going to come in and take us all out, and their God says so. Maybe we should worship their God and see what happens. So God, in the sense of justice, is completely unjust in our favor, in His grace towards us. He is just because the punishment is on Christ, but we get so much a better than fair shake, I guess would be the way to go. Because, that's right, in justice we just all go to hell, do not pass go. Okay, let's let's fire forward Peter and his brother Paul.

I'm sure we've all been exposed to this verse because of its immense power in the argument for the inspiration of Scripture. You know, we've got these pictures of Peter's theology and Peter's writings like this, and Paul's writings like this, and never the twain shall meet.

And the reality of the matter is that's absolute garbage. As we've seen in our study here, Peter took a lot of the things that Paul taught for granted. And there's a lot of things that Paul specifically was given, as we're studying Galatians, that Peter didn't get. Paul specifically has a revelation like the head and the body illustration of the church in Christ and some others.

So they were never at odds with each other. Peter says, no, my beloved brother, Paul, also. And then, what does he come to on the next page? I think we have a slide that addresses this, but Peter, Paul, knew that they were writing scripture. or anything else that's come out in the last 20 years about this, just like, oh, you know, Paul didn't know he was writing Scripture, he just thought he was writing nice letters to friends, and here we made Scripture out of it. It's just, it's manifest nonsense.

Here in 1 Corinthians 4.1, it says, Paul's writing and says, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

This regard is legitimized in the present middle imperative voice. And it's just also found in Romans 6, 11 and Philippians 4, 8. So he's saying, look, reckon on us. Reckon on us to be true as stewards of the mystery of God, as the people who are conveying unto you the mystery of God. Paul knew.

Peter knew, and then in 1 Corinthians 14.37, if anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment. Really can't get a whole lot closer to thus saith the Lord than that, right? I mean, this is the Lord's commandment. I'm not just playing around and I'm not just kidding. This is a wonderful thing. Okay, so there it is.

Untaught and unstable. I'm sorry, I don't mean to blow too quickly, but in the interest of time. Untaught and unstable. Untaught here translates the word amathis, which combines the negative article a with the word for instruction or discipline. So these are those who have not been taught or trained to think or reason properly. These people may not be malicious in their intent, but they may simply be unable to interpret what something means, no matter how plain or clear that thing may be.

Though the ability to read is clearly a powerful tool about the understanding of Scripture, it is receiving the message of Scripture clearly that is at stake. My mom teaches English at a middle school, and she says, it's just amazing. who speak English, have never spoken anything else, can pick up a text, read it, and then you ask them what it's about, and you get either, I have no idea, or you just read it. Or, probably not more likely, but equally as likely, have no idea what the author was saying, and will tell you, oh, I think it was about this and this and that and that and that. That's not what it said at all. That's just reading simple things that are written for their age group, from their time period to their time period.

Now you're dealing with, in our situation, as we get into the practical application, a book that we're separated from by thousands of years, by a cultural gap that is monumental. It would just be natural that someone who was untaught, could very easily, and especially if there was a seated desire to do so, distort the word or misunderstand it completely, right? And then we get into translation issues. If you're only reading the Old King James, language has changed since the Old King James was written.

And believe me, it's even further from the 3,000 word vocabularies of our high school graduates. So anyway, I guess we'll close up there. There's a lot more that you can read. Or not a lot more, but there's a bit more there. Even still. Anyone have any comments in closing? Alright. Let's pray and we'll go into service.

Heavenly Father, we praise you that we could study your word, Lord, that you have, through your Holy Spirit, enlightened each and every believer. And that you have given us the understanding and the ability to understand your word. And thank you that your word is so clear. And thank you that your word is such a blessing to us. As we behold you and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please, Lord, let us know you more and behold you more in the coming service and in the coming week. In Jesus' name, Amen.