The believer's adequacy and a reminder
2 Peter 1:10-14 · Bob Eckel · Oct 4, 2015
1 & 2 Peter (2015), No. 38
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926516424153

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

Go ahead and turn to 2 Peter, the first chapter. I'm going to read the beginning of verse 1. I believe it's perfect to read 1 down to 14. To Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, by which are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Beside this, in all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For these things be in you. and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged of his old sins. Now we are in today's lesson 10-14. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. If ye do these things, ye shall never fail for or fall, I guess is what it is.

For so an entrant shall be ministered unto you abundantly unto the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and are established in the present truth.

Yea, I think it fitting, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me." Alright, so your version may be a little different. In fact, what I have printed in the text is the new King James, so it's a little different than what actually was at this point.

So, okay, let's go ahead. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will remember never to stumble. Therefore, always raises the question, what's it there for? What's it there for? Check previous versions. Thank you. That's very simple. You go to the head of the class, although you were already there, Tom. All right. So let's reread 2 Peter 1, 2 through 8. I'm going to read it again.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power, notice the source, has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him. Notice where that knowledge is placed. that hath called us to glory and virtue, by which have given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, of what nature? Is this an act of the flesh? No, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Beside this giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. Let these things be in you and abound. They make you that you shall never be barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. How are you doing at this? You doing well at this? The yardstick placed here is one we never quite measure up to the full length.

So be even more diligent kind of takes us back to 2 Peter, verse 5. Talks about diligence. so and the diligence is to make your call and election sure. the verb is an active imperative. that means do it. right. so do it, exert yourself and how? how do we exert ourselves? by depending on the lord in that case. what's that called?

Hey, do we believe what God's revealed or not here? Remember, Peter's founded us on a platform of the divine nature. So that's by faith. Do we believe that? Do we believe that we've actually been placed in him and we live day by day by that knowledge? A couple of examples of this kind of being diligent.

1 Thessalonians 2.17 But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. So a very practical example of being diligent. They missed Paul. They were really desirous of seeing Paul. They were diligent, working hard, exerting themselves to see him.

2 Timothy 2.15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

A very familiar verse. I love that verse. Rightly dividing the word of truth. Not being ashamed. But look, be diligent. What's that mean? Well, in that particular context, since it mentions rightly dividing the word of truth, it means study the scripture. But this is an act, right? This is not something that passively occurs. It's something you actually put your eyeballs to work in. A fair example.

I love this one too, because it's often something we forget about. Let us therefore be diligent to enter into the rest that God has prepared for us. Boy, I don't know about you, but sometimes these earthly struggles that we have, this rest doesn't seem apparent, does it? There's a rest for the people of God.

That's a diligent action on our part. That seems kind of an oxymoron, doesn't it? For us to exert ourselves, to be diligent, to be actively involved, to enter into the rest. But Bob, it seems like our tendency from our own nature is to be stirred up, to be agitated constantly. It's so hard to sort of keep your head and say, well, the Lord is working this out, even though I can't see it. I know. Particularly when you're in a patient place like me, right? To me it's more of a self-discipline of a mind, not necessarily actions. It's more of a self-discipline to focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. But it's an act of faith, isn't it?

I mean, God's provided this platform of grace for me to enter into that, I have to believe it. And that's, you know, by being in the Word of God, by having fellowship one with the other, by just surrounding ourselves by God's great grace. And that's an action. We're not required to do anything but believe. That's what's so neat about grace. Grace is infinite.

And I think being diligent, these are just three examples that I think are all pertinent and slightly different ways of showing we have a role here. And that role is to enact. I know we live in this era of mass communications, and I guess one of the key things that tends to But in God's way, I interrupt this sin-nature interlude for a study time on God's imperishable Word. Do that again and again and again. And I know it's one of those things where you just have to stop that train of thought that's trying to throw you off track. And to do that is just to trust and rest in the truth of Good comments. Let's keep going here.

Make your call on election sure. That makes me think that there are times when we're not sure about our election. What about that? Does this mean that there are times when we need to be unsure? Well, apparently. I mean, sure means to be stable, fasted, meaning not to cease from eating. But, you know, you're called to be fast or to be dedicated to something firm.

And in our condition, we do experience this. But in our position, never. And that is where Peter has called us. That's what we read the first several verses several times this morning. The foundation here is not enacting the flesh to ultimately make ourselves think that our salvation is unsure, but our condition is ultimately dependent on our position. And just one verse to talk about sure and steadfast. This hope we have is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. and which enters the presence behind the veil. I mean, just an example of certainty and steadfastness we have.

We're not losing our salvation. I mean, we don't need to go there. That's a whole pot to get a toe right here today. You all know this. Once saved, always saved. I was saved. I'm being saved. I will be saved. It's a never-ending process. So our salvation is clear.

Our condition ultimately makes us doubt that and feel uncertain. But that's what the earthly existence is all about. And Peter knew it well, didn't he? All right, but then what does being told to make our calling election sure? Are we to measure our own performance here? I think Roger, Margaret, Tom, others, it's hard to be saying this. Now I think if you walk by grace, by faith, ultimately we don't pay much attention to our walk. But the body does. Yes ma'am.

One commentator that I read, I thought it was interesting about the word sure. It was used in classical Greek to refer to a warranty deed, somewhat like we have today. I don't know if you agree with this, but he went on to say, one's godly behavior is a warranty deed for himself that Jesus Christ has cleansed him from his past sins, and therefore he was in fact called and elected by God. Nice. It's interesting. Hard to add anything to that. That's really nice. Other thoughts? That certainty? Sure.

Calling, the heavenly invitation to all who are in Christ, the number of verses here I've brought forth, Ephesians 4.1, I therefore the prism of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called. Isn't that interesting?

The calling to which you were called gets used twice in the same verse, I think enhancing the value and truth of that calling. in Philippians, Paul says, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Okay, so kind of that fits nicely with the second epistle of Peter here in first chapter. And again, he's placed this in divine presence. That's where the calling is. And now by faith, are we responding to that calling? When we're called upward, that's where our walk by faith is initiated to come to salvation and ultimately to continue to be saved on a day-to-day basis.

Election, being chosen. I think that term, we're not going to spend a lot of time on election here today, but I think it's only appropriate when you've been saved. It's not a term we broadly apply to being elected. Once you're saved, you're elected. You're in the book of life, the book of foreverness. So it's not, we don't need to discuss this. We've been elected, each and every one of us, who've come to a saving relationship.

Knowing, or iaido, beloved brethren, your election by God. So, and Paul in First Thessalonians states this, and it's interesting, because the knowing here is not some experiential experience. This is factual, or head knowledge. We know we've been elected. Isn't that neat? We know this, as if we know that Colorado Boulevard runs north and south, right? Head north. And being called and elected are consistent with God's plans for us. There's no real argument about that, is there? All right. And being called and elected are consistent with God's plan.

And Romans 8.30, I think, nicely says, moreover, whom he predestined These he also called. So both terms are used in the same verse. Whom he called, he also justified. Whom he justified, he also glorified.

Okay, this is Christianity 101 here. But I think salvation is sure. Our call and election is unquestionable. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. Well, again, the stumbling becomes conditional, right? The stumbling isn't about our eternal salvation. It's conditional. What things are we talking about here? If you do these things... Absolutely. I think back to 2 Peter 1, 2 through 8. Again, this is not a work of the flesh. This is position becoming condition is what it is, an act of faith.

We will never stumble subjunctive, that means the action described may or may not occur depending upon the circumstances. So, you may stumble. In fact, I think when we walk by the power of the intellect and the flesh, we often do stumble. And that doesn't mean when we walk by faith, always things go smoothly. We can't pass judgment on the circumstances. It's how we enter the circumstances by faith.

Yes? And I would say too that, you know, a lot of believers, they read this and they think, well, gosh, this is just not me. But what I think people don't understand, this is a life-long process. This is not something that you become a believer and all of a sudden, all of these things just fall into place. This is a life-long process where any believer is going through their entire life. Growing in grace. And I think it's just such a mistake. new believers, they read these passages or someone to teach that you're not doing this. Gosh, this is a lifelong growing in grace process.

And life comes out of death, doesn't it? The experience of the flesh is death. It's separated from God and ultimately as we continue to stumble, we grow by grace, but the cause to faith is God really meaning me to use this stumbling as a process to returning me to my position on truth. It's very simple but on a day to day basis sometimes very difficult. Stumble is the fall or salvation or our walk. Clearly our walk. We'll fall short when in fact we're not enacting these things that Peter describes.

Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no salvation that's lost here. 8.1, I love this, there is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. And remember that occurred after Romans 7, when in fact Paul had been found in the truth, so not only had his sins been forgiven, but he himself was crucified, dead and buried, and risen with him in newness of life. Oh by the way, Romans 7, yeah, I fall short of this don't I? But remember always, there's no condemnation to any of us. Yes, our fellowship is broken by our stumbling, but that's transient because we immediately get back in fellowship and ultimately there's no impact whatsoever on our eternal salvation.

So I've pulled a couple of statements here. And I think it's going to be fun to look at these just as kind of a bit of a sidebar. So this is Paul A. Coder. And I forget the date of this. I probably should have put it on the handout. But here's his quote.

The Christian life is not a list of propositions or a tight theological system. It is a vital relationship to a resurrected Lord. Commandments he gave us and the theological systems we devise as an understanding of those propositional truths exist only to help us live in a vital relationship with Christ day by day as we follow him as Lord.

So, entirely correct, partially correct, or mostly incorrect? Yes Tom? That closing statement, day by day as we follow his Lord, that sounds suspiciously like Lordship, salvation, and it has no part in a growth. How about the first sentence? The Christian life is not a list of propositions or a tight theological system. It's a vital relationship to a resurrected Lord. I don't see any problem with that, do you?

And the second, the commandments. What commandments has he given us? The Ten Commandments, I suppose. The Ten Commandments. Other thoughts, commandments, Tom? That was part of the law, and Christ is the fulfillment of the law. We depend on his fulfillment and not our own efforts to make that fulfillment duplicated. So the commandments really are love your neighbor as I love you. What's the source of that? The commandments are really all about himself and entering into that relationship. The Ten Commandments are perfectly righteous and true, it's just that that's not our metric today.

We've exceeded those by his crucifixion, death and resurrection for sure. So I'm using these just as examples to kind of put on really what commentators of this section are saying. And I think it's good for us to kind of look at these and to see how that fits our own interpretations. I think this is partially correct. It begins well.

But I think this vital relationship with Christ day to day as we follow him as Lord sounds like Lordship salvation. And we're not about Lordship salvation. We're about I'm crucified with Christ, but nevertheless I live, right? I mean, that life we live is by faith, and that faith is enacted in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ living through us. OK, what about Job Dillow? No one in the Bible is a Christian asked to examine either his faith or his life to find out if he's a Christian. He is told only to look outside of himself to Christ alone for his assurance that he is a Christian.

True? Partially true? Or mostly in error? Didn't Peter just tell us to do that? Well, he has. But I said we shouldn't be looking at our own life. Am I wrong? Peter is more correct than I am. What do you think Peter means when he says examine yourself? Give diligence to make sure you are calling elections. If you do these things you shall never fall. What happens when we place our own experience into how we are doing and living the Christian life?

No answers. We are looking at condition then. And condition can be up or down or whatever. I think if we look at our position. Well, we have positions where it all begins, and by faith we extend the positional truths into our day-to-day existence, right? But if you look at your condition, it may or may not look very good.

I mean, I think when we're examining ourselves, I think it's a spirit-led kind of sense that ultimately that this is not of ourselves, but it's of Him. I think whenever we start putting a method to our performance, we really have entered into a space of really lists. and trying to perform and really depending on the flesh to really live the Christian life. I think when you live by faith, that life shows up. It's a life. And I think when we examine ourselves, it's really by examining ourselves and by living by faith.

And we'll let others be the judge of whether the Lord is glorified by that. Is that what Paul was talking about in I believe it's 1st or 2nd Corinthians 13 5 when he says examine yourself whether you be in faith? Well, I mean that could fit. Right. Examine yourselves. I don't think that's a list to see how we're doing. Do you think that's? No, I think you should examine where you're placing your faith according to the Bible. And that examination really is a rest, isn't it? It is. It's a rest. All right, so nowhere in the Bible is a Christian asked to examine either his faith or his life.

I think we've brought up a couple of examples where, in fact, we do. But in fact, that's not the kind of list that we would get in a mainline traditional church. He's only to look outside of himself to Christ alone. But I would argue with that second part, because we're not looking outside ourselves. The Lord Jesus, we're crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ is that that lives in me. And again, I think when that happens, this isn't a list of self-righteousness that we're making here. This is a life portrayed to be what it really is.

All right, let's move ahead. 1 John 3, 18 and 19. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we're of the truth and can assure our hearts before him. When the truth lives out in us, ultimately it's by an example to others that there's something going on here that's beyond just the human nature.

Keep in mind, when we look at performance, I would claim that there are non-Christians who often have better performances on a day-to-day basis than the believer, in terms of if we look at circumstantial metrics being applied to human behavior. I mean, that's a topic that's overrated. Let's move on. 2 Peter 111. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Interesting verse.

And I think this makes us kind of partition this and try to understand it in one of two ways. What entrance are we talking about? Is this into His grace now and or our hope and glory. What do you think? It's part of all those things that work together for good to those who love Him who are called according to His purpose. Tom, I'm not sure you answered the question. I agree with what you just said.

But is that talking about His grace applied now to our day-to-day existence? Darn tootin'. And what about our hope and glory? Well, it's our assured expectation and that's still wrapped up in His grace. So you would interpret it as both being applicable here? Yeah. Okay, but other things? What are we looking at here?

Hebrews 2.19, therefore brethren, having boldness to enter into the holiness by the blood of Jesus Christ. So this entering in, this entering into the holiness, I mean we have an opportunity to do that right now, right?

With boldness by the way, this isn't some passive, oh God help me. No, we go to the Lord as our Heavenly Father, our position is true, and we can ultimately enter in. into our current positional aspect, and ultimately have the Lord meet our needs at the throne. Now, all will be supplied to you abundantly, by the way, abundantly, that term is used in this verse, unto the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is future passive indicative, so that's something that's going to happen, it's nothing we control, and it's factual. Right now we can see that this verse could be applicable. He's talking about the condition, right?

So we have to think that ultimately this entering in is really entering into our positional truths by faith so that our condition ultimately is made not to stumble. We're walking in surety and steadfastness by that faith. This seems more related to whenever we leave these earthly tabernacles.

In 2 Peter 1.14, we're going to come to that here in a second. My interpretation here about this is that it related more to the second but also to the first, but it could be interpreted either way.

Note abundantly, and if we go back to 2 Peter 1.8, I think I alluded to that earlier, for if these things be in you and abound, They make you that you shall never be barren nor untruthful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abound. Abundantly. It's not an insignificant term.

Now does this relate to how His life is in us here and has brought Him glory? For instance, our eternal reward. So back to the first interpretation that this relates to His grace applied now to our condition. so that it's consistent with bringing glory to the Lord, and that's what brings glory to the Lord, our condition being conformed to our position. Then is that eternal rewards? We're not going to study rewards here now, but what do you think of when you think of rewards? Do you think about white, blue and red ribbons? Or gold and silver and bronze?

What I think about is how He He prepares these works for us to do. He prepares us to do these works. Well, no, but he prepares them in advance for us. I mean, he knows what we're going to do. And then he rewards us for doing the works that he prepared and he allowed and he did through us. I mean, it's like an oxymoron to me that that We're rewarded for doing the things that he set up that we're going to do anyway.

I mean, to me, it's hard for me to get my brain around that. We're not robots. No, we're not robots. But it has to be his life doing them. Yeah, exactly. It's like a circle. That's the works of the flesh, self-examined to see how well we're doing. Wood, hay and stubble fits that, I think, to some extent.

I like what Mike Doyle said about rewards, and this is to overly simplify what Mike has said. He said, the rewards, we will all be given some rewards, and the reward he thinks is as close as we were to the Lord Jesus Christ in our earthly walk, we'll have a closer relationship to him in heaven, eternally, and everyone will be content. It's not something you work for. Mike's not here to defend that.

I kind of like it in the way that it's the relationship we have with our Lord and Savior that ultimately relates to the works being manifested in His name, not our own. And that in some way is going to relate to our closeness to Him in heavenly places that everyone will be perfectly satisfied. I kind of like that, there is no second place, third place. We sort of see that in the fact that we have the three people groups and they are all perfectly satisfied.

The church is perfectly satisfied, Israel is perfectly satisfied and the Gentiles are all perfectly satisfied with their different position, you know, one's earthly people versus heavenly people. Nobody's saying, well, I want to go from earthly to heavenly or heavenly to earthly. Nobody says that. It comes back and forth, and we don't see that.

They're totally satisfied with what God has done. So I have to believe God is consistent and that people will be satisfied with what, you know, the faith they exercise in Him. They will be satisfied with their relationship with Him. And they won't be wanting, that will be of the flesh, and that will be in heaven. So I want to have more like Bob Eccle. I want to be more like Bob Eccle. Actually this is a weird tangent. Margaret and I went to the CU Oregon football game last night.

It was an hour delay because of lightnings. It started at 9.15 or something like that. And we took the bus up so we didn't have to deal with parking in Boulder, which is something you don't want to have to do. So we got home at 2.15. And was that worth it? And by the way, it was raining and very cold the entire time.

All right, so back to verse 11, which is really long. It doesn't make any difference here. So in verse 11, again, we have this ability to interpret this in terms of the condition that Peter's addressing, in terms of our walk. Or perhaps as we look forward, this could be related to his expectations to follow.

For this reason, I'll not be negligent to remind you always of these things. Notice these things keep coming up. I think the simplification of these things is walking by faith in God's great grace so that our condition is consistent with our position. Though you know and are established in the present truth.

Verb tense is important here. Will not be negligent is future active indicative. Something that I, Peter, will not be negligent. Looking futuristically, he's responsible for the behavior and it's indicative, it's factual. The Lord has called him to keep reminding him. To remind you always, present active infinitive. This infinitive we don't have to deal with as much as present active. That means right now. I'm going to keep doing it, but I'm doing it now. To remind you now and we'll continue to do it.

Though you know, he idled perfect active, but he idled again his head knowledge. He wants the believer to know that they're ultimately established in the truth that brings about these things to God's glory. This is head knowledge. This is factual. This is not experiential, like Gnosis or Epic Gnosis. This is, in fact, head knowledge.

And established in the present truth, perfect passive. Peter's responsibility by the power of the Spirit to the body of Christ he is dealing with is something that ultimately is to be received by them. They have no active role but here is the truth. This is being given to you and I am reminding you of the importance of this in your day to day walk. And have been permanently placed on the Lord Jesus Christ in the present truth. Notice that, in the present truth. And what's the present truth?

I think we've covered that repeatedly here this morning. We need this reminder from our, just kind of personalizing this and looking at the body here at Holly Hills, we need this from the elders, we need it from one another. To be reminded that these things, namely walking by faith in God's great grace is something we need to be constantly reminded. That's why we come here to Holly Hills, because we want to be educated and uplifted by this important message. We often quote this verse, pointing out we need to, it's not simply, well I read that passage one time or two times and I'm done with that, let's move on to something else. No, you come back to passages over and over again and it's amazing when you do that, how much additional insight and and encouragement you get by coming back to passages that you are very familiar with, the Lord uses that again and again to establish you and to give you a firmness of faith.

Roger, interesting comment. My thoughts here a little bit, I grew up in kind of, well after I got saved I kind of went to a fairly legal church for a while and it kind of got more legal before I got more grace. Anyway, the idea is that memorized scripture then you can meditate on it. I think the exact opposite is true. Get into the scripture and meditate on what you're reading. And then the memory becomes much easier to accomplish. It's amazing how the verses come to your mind just like that. You don't even have to try to memorize them. Memory is one thing. I give credit for people's intellect being capable of remembering.

I memorized the Sermon on the Mount once. I've forgotten most of it now. going to get into the Sermon on the Mount. In a sense, the Sermon on the Mount is Christ's nature, really. But it's really reserved, I think, for the Lordship days. I think for Israel, the Lordship days.

Nevertheless, I memorized it. But am I referring to that on my day-to-day walk? I don't think so. It's just an example. But I think when we go to the scripture, we live there, we dwell on passages, ultimately, then the memory becomes much easier. OK, just a point. Yeah? You know, we can't make up this gospel, what we've read so far. You know, the position, these precious promises, the fruit that goes with it. You know, it's just a package of good news for the believer.

I mean, obviously we couldn't make it up. It comes from the Lord, and so we forget it. And we're so legal, our flesh is so legal, like you're saying, that even as we study through it, When you study through a passage of scripture that has some reference to conduct, I find myself at times almost getting nervous. Am I going to be able to correlate this through the spirit?

But duh, look at it. It all comes from the light and flows. It's really true. The criticism of a faith that's grace-based is that you just let go and let God. No, not true. We have an active role. And our role is to enter in by faith. Do we believe what God's revealed? That we're created as new creations of Christ Jesus.

And it's the spirit-led life that enters into that truth. That's the present truth that Peter's really talking about. So I think, again, this reminding is something we need to do one with another, uplifting each and every one of us as frequently as the spirit leads in the truth of what Peter's addressing here.

And by the way, in a sense, you could look forward a little bit and see that in 2 Peter 1 and 2, he's going to start talking about false prophets. So when we think about the application of the present truth, which is the virtues of the Christ nature, played out by faith in the believer, ultimately it's going to be false teaching. So when we understand the truth, by the way, the gemologist, if you will, people who deal with gems, ultimately they don't study from these They study the real gem and then they can portray what the false stone looks like.

Not very well articulated but you understand what I'm saying. So Christ is the source of the truth and by grace we enter into that truth. And Paul and John had a similar message. And ultimately, I'm just quoting a couple of verses here. Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. He's calling them to remind each other and admonish one another in this truth.

And then 1 John 2.21, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it. and that no lie is of the truth. So in a sense this kind of anticipates where Peter is going in the second chapter about false teaching. I've combined the last two verses and these are kind of fun to end this morning's lesson with. Yes, I think it's right as long as I am in this tent to stir up you by reminding you, again this reminder, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent. or tabernacle in some versions, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. So let's drill down here a little bit.

Why did Peter call his earthly dwelling a tent or tabernacle? Because it was temporary. Temporary? Tabernacle is temporary. Other versions have dwelling or earthly dwelling. Tent, temporary, tabernacle. Okay. Plus it's portable. Portable, I like that. Tabernacle, maybe less so, but it was, right? How about the picture back in the Old Testament where Peter is very much about, back to the Old Testament where Israel in the wilderness, the tents and the tabernacles. This is all built on the same Greek word, and this is the only other text in the New Testament where this term is used. So you can turn there, but I have it written down.

Acts 7, 24-46. Our fathers had the tabernacle, that's the Greek term, skene, I'm not sure that's how you pronounce it, a witness in the wilderness, as he appointed instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob." Actually, let me correct what I just said.

The first use of that Greek term, which is the basic term, is not the use of the dwelling term. Only other New Testament views. So verse 44, skene, tabernacle, is not exactly the same Greek term as the second term, which is dwelling. Now, why this modest change in the Greek term means that they're not cited together, I don't know. But they aren't, for whatever reason.

But yet, what David's looking for is that dwelling place, too, for what was once the place of the tabernacle. 2 Corinthians 5 1-4 For we know that of our earthly house, this tent, now again back here, skinos is not the same root word, but it is used here differently, and if you go to the thesaurus and you look for words, they are separated. And I wasn't able to really dissect exactly why they're so separated.

But here in 2 Corinthians 5 it talks about our earthly house or our tent. Once this is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For we who are in this tent, same word, grown being burdened, nor because we want to be unclothed, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. So, this tent tabernacle thing does have Old Testament reference, but the New Testament term is used a little differently, and I haven't been able to really sort out exactly why this The root Greek term is used differently, but nevertheless, this is what we're talking about here.

So initially related to the tabernacle, the days of Moses, and ultimately to our earthly dwelling. So again, skinos is only used here in the New Testament, whereas skin, which is what we're looking at here, is only in the two places I mentioned, Acts and 2 Peter.

So how did Peter know he was ready to leave his dwelling? How do any of us know Peter Wynne? It's a position I can kind of have a hint of this in some people, but nevertheless. So how did Peter know? John more or less told him. Do you remember where it went? John? Well, hypothesis is really putting off his tenor tabernacle. Actually, it isn't John, so you have a good memory. John 21, 18 and 19.

Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. So yes, there's the prophecy to Peter that he would be crucified. And I mean, that's the best interpretation of what the Lord is describing. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I don't know whether we understand from the epistle that his circumstances had reached that point. I don't think we have the details about this, but he knew his life was coming to an end. I saw that his estimated age was around in the 50s here at this time. I don't know whether that's that accurate in terms of when these epistles were written. So he's not an old man from today's perspective in his fifties and ultimately his martyrdom would ultimately occur shortly thereafter. He probably was looking at circumstances also, you know, with the persecution coming up on the rise, you know, and Herod had already killed James, no doubt. And he figured, you know, the apostles are targets. He's got this great big bullseye on his chest, you know. It might be soon. You could see it coming. You can kind of estimate it by that.

You know, one thing I wanted to mention, you know, between the difference between the tabernacle and the tent and the temple, the temple was a fixed building. And, you know, I like the fact that he calls us, Paul calls us, We are in the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are. We are a permanent dwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is cool. I like that. Good, thanks for adding that. That's good. Alright, we're almost done here.

Paul also knew 2 Timothy 4, 6, and 7. We can look at that if we don't have to. But Paul also had this knowledge. Let's sit back and do each other this. We have a couple of minutes. The reason I put, I've been more likely to put verses in the handout that I think are important to read, but I was running out of space and I thought I'd turn to Second Timothy. Whoever has that, please read it. Boy, I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

Boy, yeah, I mean, so Paul was anticipating the time has come also. Alright so we have two good examples of people in scripture who knew time was nigh. I think as we age we are not put into the position of being threatened. Although did you realize those assassinations and those murders in Oregon apparently there was an anti-Christian motive to this? this victim or the shooter. We may live in a time when this is possible. I think, resurrection, where he leaves off his tabernacle, where he cries for good.

That's been a theme throughout both books, is the fact that 1 Peter is all, we're in essentially the last time. So there's an urgency to the idea in 1 Peter is how we deal with our persecution. And then in this epistle, there's also, he's regularly talking about the urgency. And in chapter 3, he talks about, The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. We know there is a promise of Christ's return in our resurrection. We will be changed. We will be given that new body.

And he's constantly stressing the eminence of that. So I think the point and the fact that he brings it personally, I know Peter's saying that very soon I'm going to go through the crucifixion or the death that Jesus prophesied specifically for him. But in a broader term, the idea is that we need to be focused on these things now because we don't, assuming we don't have a lot of time. It's not that I can get to that later. It's very imminent.

You know, with what you just said, isn't it interesting to look back at the Lord's prophecy of his motherdom and where Peter's come from? I mean, the Lord's not saying to Peter in his prophetic death sentence, if you will. When you get to be old, you've done a lot of good works for me glorified. The point is that he just says to Peter, look, there's a whole path for you that I've got worked out.

And things are going to be different. This is a guy who really is dramatically, I mean Paul on the road to Damascus for sure, that's a dramatic change. But Peter is a really great example of God's great grace applying throughout his life. And here, Peter's expecting bad things to happen. But in fact, he's looking at it in a different perspective. And how do we know? We don't know when our time's up.

As the shooting on Friday indicates, people went to school that day. They had no idea that was their last day of life. We live in an age where I thank God for each and every day. So, you know, as J.R. McGee always used to say when he was dying of cancer, he said, look, I'm not ready to go be with the Lord. I'm happy I'm going to be, but I still feel like I've got stuff to do here and I want to stay alive. I think that's the feeling for all of us. Nobody has a death wish in this room.

But in fact, we do turn to Philippians 1.21, don't we? For me, to live is Christ and die is gain. So the response I have to that is either way we win. And I think that's where Peter's at. It's time. I've walked by experience at times, and now I'm living under this tent of grace that God's given me, and I've learned a lot along the path. I think we're all part of that process, aren't we? we're safe for anything further by the devil. Amen.