Living in view of the future and conclusion

The increasingly that we're bathed in truth in the Word of God is that we see the Old Testament so often quoted in the New Testament, and these themes of God's principles in terms of this current, you know, and a future of promises really are incredibly consistent.

So let's look at Isaiah 65, 17, For behold, I create new heavens, new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind." Now, of course, this is spoken to Israel, but this is a prophecy. In chapter 66, verse 22, "'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me,' says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain." Boy, the promise is there, too.

If we turn to the Book of Revelation, of course, which gives us much more detail in terms of what the future might bear, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, as 2 Peter has already told us, right? Also, there was no more sea. Interesting, you know, the question is, why did the Lord add that? I mean, we would assume that there's a new heaven and a new earth, but no more sea, no more water, so I guess we've got to ask Him a little bit about sustenance then. But then in verse 27, same chapter, But there should by no means enter in anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

Wow, what a promise. Wiersbe, I like this. The purpose of prophetic truth is not speculation, but motivation. Isn't that nice? And I think that really relates very nicely to 2 Peter 2, 1 through 4. I mean, verse 4, remember, in verse 4 we had, "...by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises." Now just think about that then as, in fact, motivation and not simply speculation.

It relates to the truth of the Word of God. Jude, chapter 1, verse 24, "...now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless. Remember this verse as righteousness that shall not be defiled before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. So that kind of relates to what the expectation is in this new heaven and new earth. Turn to verse 14 now.

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless. Looking forward, meaning seeing that you look for. In other words, we need to kind of provide this promissory note of the Lord in sight as we walk day in and day out. So the question to the class, how would we as beloved define being diligent?

What are some thoughts here? Well, wouldn't it be, you know, that we need to rest in the Lord and we need to focus on Him? I mean, and being in His Word and knowing what the promises are. I mean, I think we need to know the promises. But how does that relate to our day-to-day existence? That's what is our day-to-day existence, is resting in the Lord. I mean, look at what's going on in the world today. If we weren't resting in the Lord, if I wasn't, I'd be going ballistic. I'd get my gun out. I'm putting an arsenal together. Go Margaret! Go Margaret! You just entered the hit list. Right now we're on the hit list. The Democratic hit list. Yes, sir. I just have a focus issue here.

I think you're zeroing in on the piece relates to Him and being at peace with us. And it's because of that that we can rejoice in Him. That's right, Roy. I think you've opened the door much more widely, and let's pursue this path a little bit. What does it mean to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless? Well, it always makes me return to a verse you get tired of hearing me say in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For He hath made Him who knew no sin. to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Let's continue this theme. This is entirely founded on positional truth. And in terms of Mike's study on Tuesday, which I really enjoyed being part of now that I'm retired, I mean, we talk about this all the time. Unless you're founded on positional truth, And I must admit, there needs to be a space between positional and truth.

Anyway, all that aside, unless you're founded on positional truth, this task of being diligent as a Christian just puts you under law. It's so defeating to live under law, because we're never doing enough. We're never confessing enough. Our prayer life is often impotent. I mean, it's incredible what positional truth does to this rest that we have in the Lord. From where else are we found? Passive tense. We are found by Him to be at peace without spot and blameless. And that's just not a promissory note. We as believers are found to be made righteous by what Christ has accomplished.

1 Peter 1.19, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot, Peter told us in his first epistle. 1 Corinthians 1a, who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So to be made blameless in the day of our Lord relates to confirming the fact that we're already a lamb without blemish and without spot in terms of our positional truth.

So without positional truth, this becomes a task that's really a futile task to try to accomplish. Other thoughts here, please? Yeah, if we don't understand our position, we're under law. And to try doing anything under law, it's just not going to work. That's right, Jim. And many of us have failed. To come to the end of yourself is to begin to understand a little bit about what this rest in peace is all about. It really is.

Alright, so how should this affect our walk in diligence then? What are your thoughts? I mean, Peter's just not throwing this out for thinking about our eternal comfort and peace and rest, but he's talking about our walk, our day-to-day existence. Well, no one has anything to offer there? Please, any thoughts here?

How should we have our walk be in diligence without being under law? Well, I think this is how positional truth becomes conditional. You know, we live in our condition, which continues to inhabit a sin nature. But we need to reckon that, of course, dead indeed unto sin. But nevertheless, it shows up a lot, doesn't it? But let's look at Scripture.

Hebrews 4.11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the example of disobedience. We need to enter. How do we enter into that rest?

My faith. By faith. By faith. By believing what the Lord has revealed to us. Exactly, Margaret. Do we believe what God has told us? And if we do, we're diligent to enter by faith into that rest in which he's positioned us. And who's rest is it by? What's that, Margaret? Who's rest are we entering into? His rest. Yeah. Isn't that complete? It really is, but we often fall short, don't we?

You know, keep in mind that within the body of Christ, how many people are in this space? I mean, I'm not being judgmental, but there's such a joy to the Christian life when you rightly divide the word of truth and understand our position on truth first.

Second Timothy 2.15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, look at this now, rightly providing the word of truth. And the third verse, Philippians 3, 9, it be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

Isn't that great? I mean, Peter's ending his second epistle in such a tremendous and zealous manner. that we really, and it's going to get better as we look at the verses that follow, and I love those two that follow. Any thoughts on this walking in diligence in terms of what that relates to? Alright, let's go ahead then.

Verse 15, and consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. It's also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him as written to you. What about this verse kind of just automatically makes a lightbulb go off in your brain? The fruit of the spirit is one, no longer suffering there. Okay, that's one thing. Right.

Other thoughts? And we're going to drill down in more detail in a second. What do you make of our beloved brother Paul? He's confirming Paul's authority. Hey Jim, that's great. Go ahead, I'm sorry. He's just confirming Paul's authority as an apostle right there. Not that he was one of the twelve, but he affirms that he was called by Jesus Christ himself.

Yeah, we're going to mature that thought, but that's great Jim, that's exactly what I wanted to hear there. is an imperative verb that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Whoops, my bad. Okay, how do we relate the long-suffering of our Lord to salvation?

The more He delays in coming, the more people are saved. Could you repeat that? I kind of missed that, I'm sorry. Andrew? The more time he gives before the end times, the more time brings more people to salvation. All right, that's one thought, okay.

I'm going to go ahead and say, as mentioned in this verse, could this reflect in some way Peter's relationship to his beloved brother Paul? which had been granted to him according to the wisdom given to him. That means given to Paul. Perhaps the following is what Peter was referring to. And in Romans 2, 4, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

So back to the topic. How do we relate his longsuffering to us today? meaning the long-suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. More identification, but now conditional. The concept here is we are being saved. Remember, on July the 14th, 1978, I came to a setting relationship with the Lord, but boy, that process ain't done in any of us, is it? So, His long-suffering, I think of it in two ways.

It's the trials and tribulations of which Peter has spoken, But moreover, I think it's also the idea that we're separated from our permanent home. Part of the long-suffering Lord Jesus Christ became fully man in addition to being fully God. That was a separation from his heavenly position to become conditional, not laid under sin because he was fully God, but the long-suffering was to be separated physically from his heavenly Father as we are from our permanent position. Let's look at a few verses that deal with long-suffering. Part of this is that the fruit of the Spirit includes long-suffering, doesn't it? So as the Spirit activates our new creation in Christ Jesus, part of that fruit is the long-suffering that he's asked us to experience here on earth.

And Colossians 111, strengthen with all might according to His glorious power. Isn't that great? For all patience and longsuffering with joy. And, you know, again, Peter really has addressed the trials and tribulations that we're going to be experiencing as believers. That's longsuffering. And when we rest above, knowing positionally that all is complete, we in fact accept this longsuffering for what it's meant by grace to grow us in that great grace and truth.

Other thoughts? All right, let's go ahead then. Perhaps it was tough love, and this is my kind of analysis of this, by which the respect that Peter had for the beloved Paul grew. What are your thoughts about that? And I'll simply give you one example first.

Galatians 2.14, but when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, this is Paul, of course, writing, I said to Peter, before them all, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? How do you think Peter dealt with that? They had some strong words sometimes, it seems like. Well, I think so, Roger. Wouldn't this be an example? Remember, Peter is calling Paul beloved. Right. Right. Well, you still can have disagreements. Go ahead.

Well, you know, just like anybody, how about our body? We always don't see everything eye to eye. Sometimes we'll see a verse with a different focus or whatever. We all don't have exactly the same view of every single truth. always, and that's actually good, because it helps us to ferret out the stuff that, you know, probably is not true.

It's good to have many brothers looking at God's Word, so. Well, but, you know, it's true for all of us to remember, going back to being diligent, what's one of the things we need to be diligent about? It's rightly dividing the Word of Truth, right? Yes.

And so, as you allude to, Roger, those differences in opinion sometimes relate to unclear areas. And I think, Roy, remember our conversation last week about, you know, the new heavens and the new earth, the timing of all that. I mean, we're not totally sure exactly of all this, but we know pretty well what Scripture says. But there are some uncertainties, too, in terms of the eternal nature of God as it relates to the future events. So we'll just use that as an example. So let's go on to 16 now.

It's also in all his epistles. Notice this. This is Peter writing about Paul. In all of his epistles, speaking in them of these things, and which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the scriptures. Wow, that's a packed verse. So let's go ahead and see. Yes, go ahead, someone. Sorry, I was agreeing with the packed verse. Well, good, Roger. It was one that was full of information. Let's go ahead.

So what do we make of how Peter describes Paul's teachings? How about this, in all of his epistles? Well, well distributed at this time, but had Peter read them all, do you think? Do you think Peter had read all of Paul's epistles? By the way, they were well distributed. They may have not gotten to every local body of believers, but they were distributed sufficiently that you think probably Peter had access to at least some of them, if not all of them.

What's your speculation? How much of Paul's writings did Peter have access to? Well, he had enough to know that they could be tough to understand sometimes. Paul's writings always weren't, you know, you had to really think about them and really dig into it to understand what's going on. Don't you think it's neat though that Peter called him and described him as beloved? I mean, but of course Peter addressed the church as beloved too, so there may not have been a special relationship there.

But I'm going to suspect that peter lord for the example i provided relations about paul's criticism uh... is uh... interactions with jews and gentiles interpret things like that let's continue these what what are these things and also all of us speaking of them at the same point that these things are well what about future events that's what he received to be covered here right That seems reasonable to me. I think we can debate that.

Or we can say the patience of the Lord, too. Go ahead. Well, you know, the patience of the Lord, because Peter's mentioned that at least twice in this chapter about the patience of the Lord. Okay. So, and Paul, boy, I'm racking my brain, I can't Did he actually cover similar ideas about the patience of the Lord? It would seem he would almost have to. I just, for some reason, I can't bring a verse to mind. But. Well, I think that's part of the fruit of the Spirit, is it not? OK. Yes, Roy. Just a thought here.

We're going into 1 and 2 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, he mentions the future. 2 Thessalonians. That's true. He has to help them understand what he said in 1 Thessalonians, which means that these are believers that didn't understand. All right. And we're going to come back to that one more. You always seem to introduce the next topic. This is good. I'm complimenting you on your wisdom here.

So the next part of this verse is speaking of things hard to understand. What are we thinking about there? You think that's Peter's view of Paul's epistles also? You think Peter was having trouble with Paul and that's what he's speaking about? I don't think so, but that's possible. Was this Paul's message of grace that was hard to understand? I would say the body of Christ today is having a lot of trouble with Paul's message of grace.

I mean, everybody acknowledges grace, But are we living under law so that the application of race, as Paul points out in Galatians 1, really is being violated? Yeah, it's so easy to live under law. Well, it came naturally from the Jews because that's what they were. Well, what's the value of living under law? What's the outcome of living under law? Well, look at the church today. I mean, most of the mainline church, even though they talk about grace, but it's still all about law in the mainline church today. But what is the outcome of living by law? Frustration. You can't... Well, yes, but a person who's living under the law, unaccepting of their positional truth, What do they view as the benefit of living under law?

And I'll just answer the question. It's self-gratification. Yeah, it's all about self. Right. It's not this exchange life led by the Spirit. And that, you know, people can feel quite self-righteous about their behavior, think they're pleasing God. And I'm not the one to finally judge that. Only if the Lord is in that position. But nevertheless, things hard to understand, it could be Paul's message of grace.

Jason Fawcett and Brown have said mainly in reference to Christ's coming, for example, the statements as to a man of sin and the apostasy before Christ's coming. That's their interpretation of things hard to understand. And things that are future. These future events are these things. So that's what they think in context this represents.

What about untaught and unstable people? What do you think? Likely believers here, Roy? He's out of the room. I think these are mostly believers, but I think there's some reason to believe that these could be scoffers too, so we'll come back to that in a different section of this verse. James 1, 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Isn't that great? I mean, that's this admixture of grace and law, isn't it? When we live by law, and then we live by grace, and we keep falling back on grace when the law fails, I mean, in a sense, I think this is what James was describing as the unstable. In the Greek, the term twist means to rest, or actually, interestingly enough, to torture or pervert. So let's look at the verse again. I'm taught that unstable people twist to their own destruction. Pervert. Torture even. Even true believers? Can that happen to believers?

Oh sure. Look at all the denominations we have. You know, Jim, if you think about the denominations, Why do they need a denomination? What's the source of that? It's how they interpret scriptures. They've made a separate doctrine that's different from everybody else. And everybody has their own idea how to interpret scriptures, it seems. But isn't there some comfort in that we all belong to Holly Hill's Bible Church? What, Roger? I said, Amen. Oh, okay. That's good. That's always a good word.

How about to their own destruction? But are these believers? Those whose theology leads them to total destruction? Well, let's see what follows. 2 Peter 2.1. But there are also false prophets among the people. even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction." Now, is that just the path? The path of grace being ignored? Do they bring on themselves destruction in the Christian life they're trying to lead? Or, in fact, is this eternal destruction? I think this is eternal destruction.

He's talking about false prophets here. Okay. People who intentionally deceive. All right, so some of this text could apply to the church, but some of it may apply to those who are not of the church, who are scoffers and ultimately people who are false teachers and false prophets. Good, I think that could be interpreted in both ways, Jim, thanks.

Rest, other of the scriptures, the rest of the scriptures, let's go back to the verse. as they do also the rest of the scriptures. So there's where the rest is. It appears that Peter regarded Paul's writings as having equal authority as the Old Testament scriptures and I think you can go back to the first chapter of Peter which deals with a lot of the prophecy that preceded him and I think this is a reasonable interpretation of what the rest of the scriptures means. I think that Peter tied into Paul and all his writings of having equal authority with the Old Testament scriptures and prophecies. So that to me is the best interpretation here. So let's now close and combine verses 17 and 18.

You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Roger, Amen. Okay, Beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness. Again, falling from grace, falling from position into a condition which is really being led away with the error of the wicked. Peter ends his epistle with a warning.

Why do you think so? Well, what's the rest of his first and second epistle, kind of the theme of those two epistles, would you say? Well, we learned in the last month or two about the false prophets, false teachers, and all the potential scoffers that relate to the administration of the word and its application to a life that's diligently applied to God's great grace. So I think it's probably appropriate that a warning be given in this final section, his last words to the body of Christ. Based on what Paul and he have transcribed, These truths should be known.

So there's kind of a warning. What's the matter with you? We've given you plenty of information here. And again, Peter turning to Paul's previous epistles really, I think, reflect the combined nature of the apostles that the Lord had given the new body of Christ.

Galatians 5.4, you have become estranged from Christ. So here's the warning. You who attempt to be justified by law, Jim, you have fallen from grace. And just think about this. As we continue to live under law, the principle of grace does not apply. It's there. The platform of grace is never ending. It's infinite.

But when we live by law, we've fallen by lack of faith into the position of truth by which we've been founded. Do you feel that this warning relates well to the rest of the letter? And I guess, you know, we kind of addressed that already. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen. Nothing more than this really needs to be proclaimed, doesn't it, Roger? No, that's good. Well, the first part of that verse is kind of a favorite of ours.

We talk about growing in grace. It's kind of interesting, but as you think about that, God's grace is infinite. And so, and he's given us all the grace that we need. So, how do we, you know, the question, how do we grow in grace? How does that work out? Well, by the way, growing in the grace, and by the way, it's also connected to the knowledge. Exactly, exactly.

Where do we find the Lord Jesus Christ? We don't feel it by this or by, you know, cloudly experiences. We find it in the Word of God. Well, and maybe you notice, too, there's a Luis translation of that last verse there. It actually has growing in the sphere of grace, which I kind of... Because we're immersed in God's grace, we know that from various verses, and we operate, our operating system is grace, so we're growing in the sphere, if we rightly divide God's word, which is a gracious word, and we understand that we live in grace, then our growth has to be in that sphere and not in law. We're not going to grow in law, we're going to grow in grace. And as I mentioned before, I think that makes the Christian life joyful, doesn't it? He does. I mean, it really, our position of truth, when we rest in that, then we allow Him to work out that new nature in us by the power of the Spirit.

Despite the warning, what indicates Peter's love to all of us here? Well, to conclude, I think we are the beloved. It's just not Paul who's identified as the beloved. Peter addresses the body as beloved. That's another thing that made me, Roger, kind of want to get into Peter, because I think particularly in the first epistle, there's really a lot of sound doctrine that Peter brings forth. That's true. And we need to recognize that doctrine's not only about Paul, but Peter, I think, in terms of his ultimate love for Paul and what he'd written, you know, continues to duplicate and demonstrate sound doctrine. And he substantiates our path of growth, which is really what we're all about, isn't it? We want to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I'll end by Ephesians 4.15, by speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ. Final thoughts about the two epistles of the Apostle Peter. You know, I just wanted to say that also we says in verse 18, he says, growing in the sphere of grace and an experiential knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The experiential knowledge is not just head knowledge, it's what we do. Yes, I didn't lift this up, Jim. Do you know whether knowledge is gnosis or epigenosis here? I should have lifted that up, but I didn't. But it's more than just head knowledge, I'm sure. It's a stronger Greek term. Anybody come up with that? That is gnosis. Gnosis, okay. So that's a personal experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'd like to just take a minute.

I know, Roger, we need that. But comments from Roy, Andrew, and Roger, all you guys who have been part of this teaching experience. So first, Roger, any final thoughts here? Well, like you said, I think studying Peter's been great. I mean, a lot of neat things in here. And he's different than Paul, so we've learned a lot of things, a different perspective. So I think it's been good. And I think it's actually a good preparation for where we're going to Thessalonians. OK. That's my thought.

Andrew, your thoughts, final thoughts? Oh, yeah. pretty challenging because he compacts so much in one verse. Like last week, he was talking about the thief in the night, the rapture, but at the later part of the verse, he's talking about after the millennium, and so he compresses things so well, it's hard to, Paul is a little more, spread out, so it's challenging.

And I like this, you know, we were thinking about where to go, you and Roger, about what book to study next. But this is perfect going into Thessalonians because it's going to continue the rapture and the end time stuff. It's going to be nice. We're looking forward to it. Thanks, Andrew. Roy, final comments, please.

Well, my thoughts here have been focused, I think, by the Holy Spirit and what he does with each one of us on our Lord and Savior. And the future is, of course, part of that, that he's planned. I think that Peter really was concerned about the future of the organization, the body of Christ himself. And he was warning us that we could be led astray over and over and over again. That just came out really strongly to me here.

And one of the things, too, that led me to was re-reading Clarence Larkin and Aaron Seid and several others, their understanding of where Peter was going with this about the future. about after the thousand-year reign of Christ, in which he brought absolute authority, righteousness was not at home. Righteousness is not at home in the millennium, which is what he's talking about in these verses. Like you say, Andrew, very, very briefly, he just says it, righteousness is at home in the future. in this new heaven and new earth. That's got to be after the millennium. Anyway, of all those things, the study of the words and the focus of Peter here led me to the conclusion that there's a lot more that's been left out of our Scofield Bibles about after the millennium. And where we go with that in 1 and 2 Thessalonians I think will help us see that, too.

Okay, Roy. Thanks so much, everyone. Good to see everyone on Zoom, and I'll see some of you in person in the near future. Mike? Okay. Everything working okay at the church right now? Well, the Wi-Fi's not up, so come to church if you want. I don't think it's going to be up either, so we'll see. All right, good.

So let's close with prayer. Father, we're thankful that we've been able to study your word. The epistles of Peter have been so uplifting and so directive. And we're thankful for being called to the increasing knowledge and grace that expressed in the nature of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.