Conclusion of 2 Peter

Can I get someone to read, we're going to look at the last two verses here, but can I get someone to read, starting in chapter 3 of 2 Peter, read 14 through 18, the last five verses, 14 through 18. Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found at peace with him without spot or blemish.

Also regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the scriptures. Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, Be on your guard so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Great. Thanks, Jim. OK.

So as we close out this epistle, we'll see that You know, we're going to talk about kind of a warning. There's kind of a warning in verse 17. And there's, and then there's kind of, and there's actually, that's actually a command in verse 18. And we often quote that. In fact, it was pointed out to me that's Holly Hill's verse. But grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory and honor. So actually it's pretty special. I'll probably spend maybe equal time in both verses. So let's just kind of jump into it. Go over to the next chart. Okay, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard.

So, you therefore, or as for you therefore, beloved, divinely loved ones, and we've seen this, this has shown up in in second Peter about five times. This is divinely loved ones. This is a special word that is used in scripture that God speaks of concerning his son, the word Jesus. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

And he uses the same word for us as believers, which always is kind of amazing. And actually Nancy shared with me that really was really special for her when she was listening to the class that we covered that on. It's really kind of a neat thought that the Lord would call us the same same reference as his beloved that he would call his son. And that makes it even more wonderful that we say, well, the only way he could ever possibly do that is that we're in union with his son. He couldn't call us that if we weren't in that wonderful relationship. So that's just one of the many words and verses that tell us about our special relationship with our Savior.

So knowing this beforehand. And literally, the this has been added by the translators. And I want to talk about that in a second here. But it's this word. It's pro-gnosco. It's the word gnosco, which is knowledge. And then pro is before. So this is a word that's used in scripture in a variety of places. And let's just look at one of those. It's used in Romans. You probably recognize this one.

It's used by God's foreknowledge, his prognosco. He knows in advance. Romans 8, 29. And 8, 29 says, it says, for whom he foreknew, that's our word, prognosco. It's basically know beforehand, is the translation here. And in verse 29, it's, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

So that's God's knowing beforehand. So Peter here is actually telling us to remember something that he's covered beforehand, in a sense. I mean, obviously, God's talking about foreknowledge. We don't have foreknowledge, as God has, of eternity past and all his plans. But this word is something, well you knew something before.

So the question is, in this context, what is this? It's been added by the translator. So look at your Bibles or your electronic devices. What do you think this is referring to? Typically when you do that you look back in the verses to see what followed, what came prior to this verse. So what do you think he's, and he's going to warn them about something, so what is he, what is the this that they knew beforehand that he's going to warn them about to guard themselves and so on? So what do you think that this is referring to?

About the false teachers, isn't it? Okay, I think that's You know, probably pretty close to it. You know, like in verse 16, you know, talks about the, the very last part of 16 says, he talks about Paul being hard to understand. And he says, which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of scripture to their own destruction. So he's saying, you know, with a falsehood, be careful. You know, men may distort scripture.

That's why we're to know what scripture says. That's why we're to be like the Bereans. We're to check the scriptures, make sure these things are so. So this is his last warning in his epistle. He had lots of warnings in there about people. And he said, I warned you beforehand, and I'm warning you again. And he says, be on your guard.

It's literally, it's in the present tense, so in the original language, in the present tense means it's something that's ongoing. We're constantly, we don't let our guard down, so to speak. We constantly be on your guard, constantly. Something that's going on, and that's just a matter of, and I think we do that probably as a course, just with our life. Information comes into us all the time.

I can hardly stand to listen to it anymore. You get so weary of information. So much of the world, so much of this fallen world is just so oppressive on us. You feel like Lot. You say, Lord, I want to go home. This is just too much. This is what Peter is telling us.

Be on your guard. Don't let your guard down, so to speak. Guard is to is to watch to keep and I had a couple of verses For that so let's look at because someone read first Timothy first Timothy chapter 6 and verse 20 Timothy guard what has been entrusted to you avoiding irreverent empty speech and contradictions from the knowledge that Falsely bears that from the knowledge that falsely bears that name by professing it deviated from the faith. Grace be with you all. A very similar thing in Timothy. That message is, in other parts of Scripture, be on your guard.

Watch out what's going on. And basically, we have information that we've been given through the Holy Spirit about Scripture. We have an understanding. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us. But we're told to be on our guard. Actually, I put the verses there. And let's also look at 1 John. 1 John 5, verse 21. Okay, that's pretty straight forward.

He says that without even talking about idols. He just assumes. That was just kind of the The end of the book. He didn't say a whole lot of words. He didn't say goodbye or grace be with you. He says, little children, guard yourselves from idols. Right. And we have to take the... I know as we realize idols in the broader sense of the word, it's not just a little statue there. There are so many idols in this world that can distract us. So many things that draw us away.

And then the last one is in Acts 20. Acts 20 and let's read 27 and 28. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Great, thank you. So this is an admonition to the elders and the leaders. The leaders are most attacked. They attack the leaders so they can scatter them. So they really have to be doubly on guard. I usually talk with Vani about the verses and go over them. We're very thankful for Holly Hills.

You know, by knowing the truth, when some people come in and they'll give their ideas, well, this is my idea about this, and that's my idea about that. Well, if you already understand the truth well, and you're well-grounded in the truth, when something else comes along, and you compare the truth to what that person says, or with the Word of God, then it's pretty, I don't want to say it's easy, but it makes it so much more, maybe easy, I'll say easy, It's more clear. It's more clear.

And so when you tell a brother or sister, well, I don't think that's what scripture says. I mean, you're not doing it because you want to hurt them or make them feel bad. You're saying, I've looked at scripture and this is what scripture says. And this is what you think it says. Well, please consider what we believe scripture says. And I'm thankful. Many times people will say, yeah, I think you're right. Although, not everybody does that. And we're not trying to make robots out of everybody.

But it's wonderful when we can agree upon the truth and be grounded in the truth. That's what's really wonderful. One of the great things about Christianity is that if somebody comes along with false teaching, if it doesn't fit right with your soul, you know there's something that you need to go back and make doubly sure that what they said is either correct or incorrect.

It's just something we put into it and it fits the pattern. And it's always there. And we have the spirit of guidance into all the truth too. You may not know where the scripture is, but you know it in your heart. You know what's true and you know what's false. You may not be able to explain it, but it's there in the heart. That's good. Okay, so let's go on to the second part of the verse here.

So that you are, so that is this word hena, I think. It introduces a purpose clause, say in the Greek, and you may be learning a little bit of that, purpose clauses. In fact, actually just for, even if you don't know any Greek, if you see that or so that, that kind of usually introduces something that's going to explain the previous part.

So he says, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard with a purpose that, You will not be carried away by the error of the principle of men and so on. Kind of neat to have you. I circle many of those that's and so that's in my Bible just because I know what follows is going to explain the previous part. So that you are not carried away by the error of the principle of men and fall from your own steadfastness. And that word that, I have another Bible. That's a purpose clause. Right, exactly. A purpose clause, when they say it introduces the purpose clause.

So if you're diagramming, that's another. Actually Jim, I was going to bring you something. The diagramming I have is only in Greek. I wanted to show you an example before I found my source. Jim asked me a question about diagramming, sentence diagramming.

Of course, our brother Hal, who has gone to be with the Lord, he was just really wonderful in that. Actually, what you need to do, if you're not too familiar with your grammar, you need to go back and review sentence diagramming. If you're going to diagram in the Greek, you need to go back and diagram in English first. You've got to have a chance.

Actually, one time we actually taught diagramming, regular diagramming. I'll give you a book, some info on that, Jim. And it's going to be very helpful, but to do it from scratch takes a lot of time. Anyway, I'm kind of getting off the subject. Well, again, like you said, you have to know English grammar. You have to know English grammar. If you don't know English grammar, you can't diagram. Right, right. Well, my English capabilities, thank you for Bonnie, Lord. I mean, she's... I have a grasp of the English grammar.

I had a really good class taken by, you know, Miss Elsie at Western Bible College was just incredible. I never even cared about English grammar before I took that class. And I really didn't care afterwards until maybe 20 years later I started really digging into the Bible and trying to understand it. And when you go into the Greek and understand Greek, I've never seen a translation of the Bible that is grammatically correct. I wanted to make my own. You know, I can't call it a translation because I don't know Greek, but I wanted to make my own paraphrase and make it grammatically. OK, well, that's that's a wonder. That's a wonderful exercise, because you're in doing that. You're going to have to you're going to have to go through it. You're going to have to struggle with the same struggles that the translators have.

They have they have some struggles because they look at the original language and they look at English and they say, well, how do I convey this idea in the English and the proper English grammar? and I have the Greek grammar over here, how do I make that... It's difficult. It is difficult. It's very difficult, but it's doable.

Anyone who knows English grammar should be able to do it. Right, I agree. But it's really to understand what the Greek guys were saying, and then bring it into English and make it understandable. You have to be very careful not to re-translate it in the wrong light. You have to understand what the author is actually saying. That's a wonderful discipline and exercise. And we're not going to try to do that today. So with the purpose of that, you are not carried away, and literally, it's less having been led away. And it's aorist, passive, participle. So you're being acted upon, passive voice, and it's action, past completed action.

So it's assuming that you have been led away, something has happened to you, that you're not carried away. If you look at the tense here, having been, that's something that's already occurred, right? Having been led away. So that's kind of the tense. He's writing to those who may have already been led away. And the idea is to lead off, to carry away from someone. It has the idea of personal. There's a negative aspect and a positive aspect.

Before I do that, let's just look at, Hebert here had a good comment, I thought. He says, this points out the danger of being led astray from the right path by keeping too close company with false teachers. I think it goes back to studying the scriptures and even though you may have an excellent teacher and it may be just and it warns you about not following a man even though he may you know there are many godly men and I thank for every single one many of them are here in this church but we shouldn't wind up focus so much on them, we focus on the Lord and Scripture. So we thank the Lord as they exegete the Scriptures and explain them, but we're careful that we don't focus on them, we focus on the Lord and on Scripture.

So that's kind of this comment here. So this is kind of assuming that you won't be carried away. and the ideas that you have been carried away. So let's look at the negative and the positive of that word. And that's another thing you'll find out. As you study scripture, many words in the original have and are translated in a negative sense or a positive sense. And let's look at this one right here as a good example.

So let's look at Galatians 2.13.

So when someone gets to Galatians 2.13, if they would read that, that would be great.

The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy. With the result that even Barnabas was carried away by the hypocrisy. Right, okay. So this is Paul writing here and talking about Barnabas. He's talking about a situation that happened, if you go back to verse 12. Basically it says, prior to the coming of a certain man from James, He used to eat with the Gentiles.

But when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined with him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away, that's our word right here, by their hypocrisy. So here's a case where he was afraid that he's with Jewish believers. And he says, well, they won't like it if I don't do this. So he sided with his... Other people came in, and so Paul's pointing it out. He was carried away by his desire to please his Jewish brethren. He should be focused on the truth.

I think it was... I've forgotten exactly the whole situation. Maybe you guys remember better than I do. Were they eating something sacrificed to idols? Or maybe it was just actually just dining with them. It might have just been the process of just, well, you can't eat. I think that was it actually, like an ax.

They dined, even dining with a Gentile was no, no. I mean, to a Jew, eating with a Gentile was something you didn't do. So what they did when the Gentiles came in, it's the reverse. When the Jewish people came in, they separated themselves from that, from the Gentiles and ate with you Jewish peoples. So you won't think I'm hanging out with these Gentiles.

These Gentiles were believers. And so Paul was very upset about that, that they would, you know, choose to the custom of the Jewish people over, you know, eating with their brothers. You know, Peter had to decide who he was going to please. Right. You know, the Jews, the Gentiles. Right.

I think you picked the wrong So here's an example of our word carried off in a negative sense. The Romans 12 passage is the same word, but in a positive sense. It's a little hard to see, but let's look at Romans 12 and verse 16. Jim, would you mind reading it in your translation? Yes, Holman Christian. Be in agreement with one another. Don't be proud. Instead, associate with the humble. Don't be wise in your own estimation.

Okay, so the idea here is that a mind has to be associated with the lonely. And the word associate is this word carried away. So that's this word translated. It's the same word but translated to associate yourself Not to think more highly of yourself, or actually I have another one. Accommodate yourself to the lowly things. Be accepting of the lowly. Don't shun people that may not have the same means that you have.

So that's this word. that's translated carried away here in a positive sense. The only reason I did this is maybe it's a little bit too nitpicky, but just that words can be used in the negative sense or in a positive sense. And you have to look at the context and how it's used and things like that. In that verse, next verse, do not be wise in your own estimation. Right. That's good.

The King James word they use is condescend. But yeah, the Greek word is sunopago. It means to take off together. That is transport with, seduce, passively yield. If you're passively yielding, then you're being carried away. Right. Good point. OK. All right. So the next part is, this is by the error of unprincipled men. An error is the idea of wandering or roaming. And on principle is the idea that of lawlessness of wicked persons.

And actually the example that we saw earlier is in 2 Peter 2.7. I'll go ahead and read that.

2 Peter 2.7. Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. Is that right?

No, actually it's going to be 2 Peter 2.7. It's going to have this word unprincipled. It's another scripture that focuses on the idea of unprincipled men.

So it's 2 Peter 2.7. So that one says... Sensual. You have sensual for that? Sensual conduct of unprincipled men. Let me see, where am I?

Second Peter 2.7. Okay. Mine says, and if he rescued... Okay, so this is talking about... We covered this earlier. It was talking about Solomon Gamora, and it says, if he rescued righteous lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. So that's the same word that's used here, unprincipled men. lawless, wicked men.

Okay. And then the last part of that verse, and fall from your own steadfastness. Fall from is literally to fall out of. The idea is that of moving from a desire to a less desired position. Galatians 5.4, let's see what that says. Now this is Paul talking. Pretty harsh words. He's talking about those who try to keep the law. He says, they try to keep the law. You have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to justify yourselves by the law, you have fallen from grace.

Actually, if you study that out, that's falling from law to grace. You're not losing your salvation. That's a whole study unto itself there. So if a person, in that verse, goes back to the law, he's moving from his own steadfastness. You don't want to do that. You're in Christ, and if you adopt a thinking or attitude or whatever that is contrary to that, you're falling from the place that you have in Christ, which is a permanent position.

I have always been taught that falling from grace is losing your salvation. Well, that's a study... You can't lose your salvation. You can't. That makes more sense to fall from grace back into law. Exactly. Because that's easy to do. Right. When you cover Galatians, that's what we typically teach.

You fall from law to grace. And I think actually it kind of fits in this context here because he's concerned that they're under grace and they're going to go back. He's warning them about these unprinciples. You're going to go back to something that that's not representative of who you are.

So, and then Colossians, steadfastness is actually a stability of mind. In Colossians 5, somebody have Colossians 5 in verse 2? 2-5, I'm sorry, excuse me. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline. and the stability of your faith in Christ. So that's what he's saying. He's pointing out that we have a wonderful stability in Christ that is unshakable. We have the life of Christ in us.

So he's saying, but you can because you have a sin nature. You can go back and hang out, as our brother Hal would say, you can hang out over there. Conditionally, you can hang out. You can't change your position. You're in Christ. But you can go back there and do things that you shouldn't be doing, or follow actions you shouldn't be doing.

The Amplified Bible has, Fall from your own present firm condition. We have a firm position in our Lord Jesus Christ. You can fall steadfast in some mind. There's another verse that you can look at. we're not to be, as Ephesians 4 says, we're not to be carried away by every wind of doctrine.

And that can happen. Somebody will say something, well that sounds really good. And maybe we're not careful to think it out. So we're susceptible to that. You hear something and you think, well that sounds pretty good. Well, you know, check it out. Think through it. It's about 14.

That's Ephesians 4.14. Carried about by every wind of doctrine and so on. Okay, so now we're going to switch gears here. In the last minutes we have left here. And this is just a wonderful verse. But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grow is this idea to grow or increase or add to something. It's present imperative active. If you look at the mood tense voice, basically it's a commandment. It's in the present tense, so we're to continually do this and it's active. That's something we're to perform in the power of the Holy Spirit and the life in Christ in us. It's literally to be constantly growing. So the question is, how do we do that? Is constantly growing mean, I mean you can think of all kinds of, I know, I'm trying to think of something. Does that mean you have to memorize the entire Bible?

I think you could get off on the wrong path here, possibly. You could think, well, God's going to be pleased, and you make up a list of all these things that I'm going to do. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. You make all this list up, but is that what the Lord would have you do? I think you need to understand what he means by growing in grace. Part of that is just a simple desire and faith.

And I think 1 Peter 2.2 speaks to that. Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. So part of this whole growing process is that you have a desire. You have a desire.

Lord, I want to know you more. Well, how do I know you more? I read your word. I try to understand it. If the Lord's given the ability to diagram sentences in the original language, wonderful. You do that. But you have a desire. That's the beginning point of any growth. I have a desire to know. I'm not trying to... quote, show off to God that I've done 20 spiritual push-ups today. No, I have a desire to know you better, Lord. That's a motivation in growing. It's like a baby gets hungry for milk. The baby's just hungry. He's not trying to show off. Exactly. He's not trying to prove, wow, look how much milk I can drink. I can drink milk. No, he has a desire. He has a strong desire.

Another thing is with respect to salvation. It's always good to think about the aspects of salvation. We have been saved, the past acts aspect. We are being saved and we shall be saved. So this is addressing the middle part. We are being saved. That's part of the salvation package if you will. We have been saved, we are being saved and we shall be saved. The shall be saved is when we are with the Lord. in our new bodies in eternity. Glorification.

You can think of it... I better not say it. I'm going to mess it up if I do. So that's the first grow. That's the first part. The next part is... Actually we kind of talked about that a little bit. I think a real important point about this is the fact that when we think about growing in grace, what does that mean? that the Bible teaches us that we already before we even think about growing in grace we already are in grace which it seems kinda contradictory but if you look at if you look at Romans chapter 5 verse 2 it says through whom also we have obtained this something we have our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in the hope of the glory of God so we already right now every believer no matter whether he's a newborn babe or very mature, he stands in grace. And I think the Weiss really brings it out really well. Now the Weiss attempts to take the original language and to amplify it and to make it more understandable in English.

It says, we have as a permanent possession into this unmerited favor, that's grace, in which we have been placed permanently. So we stand, or it's been said, we are immersed in God's grace. That's our, for computer people, that's our operating system. That's how we operate. The Christian life is one of grace. We operate totally in God's grace. We can't change that operating system. God operates us totally in terms of grace.

So you think, wow, how can I grow in that? It seems like it's ungrowable. It seems like, well, I'm in it. You know, it'd be like, you know, for computer people, it'd be like, well, I'm going to change the operating system on my computer. Well, to do that, good luck. I mean, you're going to take on changing Microsoft's code or whatever, if you're into that kind of stuff. Basically, that's what you're doing if you go from grace to law.

That's an excellent, excellent point. You're trying to get in there. No, what God wants you to do is to understand it. Understand it, understand it, understand it. Law doesn't work with grace. That's a good thing. You can have a Macintosh or you can have a Microsoft. You can't have both of them.

You know, Roger, the Holman Christian says, Romans 5.2 says, we have also obtained access through him. by faith and inspiration. So obtained access instead of obtained introduction. It almost speaks of, we've obtained access, but you have to get in there to do it. It's hard to go in there.

How about this, how about if you're in, if you're, use a computer analogy, I hope we don't overuse this analogy, but if I'm going to write a program in Windows or Macintosh or Apple, I have to abide by the rules of that operating system. He wants us to understand that we are in grace. Our understanding needs to be that God is operating in grace. So when I look at scripture, I want to look at it with that in mind so that I don't try to put a little law in there and say, well Lord, you're doing just fine.

But I'm going to put a little law in here because I know I can make this work a little bit better. I'm being a little bit silly. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's like if you want to go into a program and start a document. You can't use a different operating system to get into that program.

You've got to use that operating system, and you've got to use grace to access faith. So what's interesting, if we understand this verse, which is really key, when we go into scripture we're going to be looking for how is God going to operate in this operating system of grace.

And it's going to change our view of how we look at verses. Tremendously, because if we look at going with the law aspect in our mind, we're going to look for, kind of, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Give me ten things to do, Lord, and I'll do them, and everything's good. Well, no, God's not going to do that. He's going to give you, He's going to help you to understand how He's going to operate in grace, and how His grace is going to be. My grace is sufficient.

Like when He talked with Paul, and he had the thorn in the flesh. He told Paul that his grace was sufficient. Paul was hurting. He had this thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, and he said, and he prayed about, you know, it says three times, you know, you think, well, Lord, when I have a problem, I pray a lot more than three times. It seems like a low number, but anyway.

But he said, my grace is sufficient. So you think, well, Lord, how is your grace sufficient? So you ask those hard questions. You say, well, how is your grace sufficient? And by asking those hard questions, you learn about how he operates, how we're in grace, and that's how he operates. And in a way, it's going to help you to understand more of Scripture and to actually not try to do it yourself. Because if you're operating in this operating system of grace, and it's God's grace, what was Paul's response to when the Lord told him?

He says, well, if your grace is sufficient, if that's the case, then when I am weak, then I am strong. He really got into it. I got excited about this. Then I want to be weak then, Lord, so I can be strong. If he would have looked at it through the law, He wouldn't have got anything. He says, well according to the law, I'm supposed to heal me. That's really good. It prevents you from being angry with the Lord when he doesn't act the way you want him to act. And we don't want him to act always in grace, I don't think. Because it's different. It's just different. And it's not speedy, maybe.

Makes you wonder how he looks at our enemies. terrorists. And they are real problems. We have enemies of the world physically. We have enemies, the false teachers. Enemies on the inside of our bodies, on the outside. We have our own selves as enemies. Our fallen nature is an enemy. The world, the flesh and the devil are our enemies.

But God is going to come at us with grace. He wants to convince us that His operating system is the right one. And that we're not to get in there and try to tweak it or change it. Because we want it to happen really quick. To fix all those problems. I'm not saying I'm any different than any of you guys either. I'm the same way. If I have a loved one who is hurting, I want them to be healed.

But you have to realize, maybe the Lord, maybe that's not, you know, you have to believe the heart. Well, maybe the Lord, maybe they're not going to be healed. Right. And people looking at it through the law says, well, God should have healed that person and he didn't. Exactly. And so I hate God. God's not the person I hate. And they walk away from the Lord.

Right. And I think it happens. Right. And that's because they don't, if they understood they're operating in grace, they're going to see it's a totally different picture. Right. Okay, let's go on so we can finish. Let's go. This is all great stuff. The second point is that grace is heavenly focused. I have a few verses here.

Does someone have 1 Corinthians 1.4? I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. So grace is given in Christ Jesus. Grace is given to you in Christ Jesus. So the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus. That's one aspect.

Second Corinthians 9.8, it says, And God is able to make all grace abound to you, always having all sufficiency in everything, that you may have an abundance of every good deed. So he's able to make all grace abound to you. Not just a little bit, all grace.

And then the last one is 2 Timothy 1.9, which says, Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus. Right. So once again, it's in Christ Jesus. Okay.

And then next, but we're still to increase in our understanding of grace. And Peter says, may grace and peace be yours in fullest measure. So he wants us to understand the full aspect of his grace. And I don't think we'll, in reality, we'll never fully understand that until we go to glory. But that's a wonderful task we have.

And if we're focused that God is operating under grace, we're going to look for those in scripture. We're going to look to see what his grace is. We're going to look to see that we're blessed with every spiritual blessing. We're going to be, our eyes are going to be open. We're going to be looking for God's grace. not looking for some kind of law solution, which is not going to help us.

At one point I thought, is this kind of repeating itself? Growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. but grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have one aspect where we are looking at what God has accomplished in grace. The second aspect of this is to grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is going to focus on his our intimacy with him.

Philippians 3.10 says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death. The wonderful thing in the Christian life is that we're to know a person. We're to know our Savior. We're to know Him.

And it talks about this intimacy that we're to have. We know the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. There's this interaction with our Savior, so to speak. And that's the second part. We're not only to know the system He's operating under, we're to know Him. We're to focus on Him. So there's two aspects to this.

The grace which we're in, and the knowledge, the personal knowledge and intimacy of who Christ is, and our relationship to Him. That He loves us. He died for us. We're one with Him. Christ is in me. I'm in Him. All these wonderful scriptures that talk about our very personal relationship with Him. He calls us beloved. God calls us beloved. So that speaks to a very personal.

I kind of see two parts to this. The growing is two-fold. One in this wonderful grace system. And the other is of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is just kind of the overview. All the details of what we're learning hopefully week by week. His grace and knowing Him personally. So the Day of Eternity is a time when we will be living on the New Earth.

He talked about that a little bit earlier. Actually, I had one more verse I wanted to share. There are a bunch of verses that talk about To him be glory. I mean, I want to read a few of those. There's a whole lot. There's a lot of references to that. How about how about to Timothy to Timothy for 18? It says, the Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. So that, to him be glory, that's used a lot in salutations in scripture.

We made it. Well, thanks for participating in the class. I wish you well. Some people are going off to learn how to say the Bible. Others are going to other places. Some are staying here. That's great, too. We're going to be doing First Corinthians. Actually, we're going to have Randy with us this time. We're going to do a trade. Like NFL, we trade. It'd be kind of funny. So we're going to trade.

Jeremy for Randy. Randy's not coming to teach. He'll teach the first couple of classes too. What's happened with Josiah? I haven't seen him around. He's coming occasionally. I just haven't seen him around. I had four kids. He came all the time. You're a special person. So actually it will be Bob Eccle, Randy and myself will teach this class. I'll teach First Corinthians. Let's close in.

We thank you, Father. We thank you so much, Lord, for this day. Thank you for our time this year and 1st and 2nd Peter, Lord. We just thank you for the marvelous truths we've learned, Lord. A lot of them we just went over mayherdly. We pray for as you allow time to dig into them more and other classes to see those truths. Thank you that your word is exhaustive. It doesn't come up short in any aspect, Lord. It's all that we need for life and godliness. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, Amen.