{"id":18176,"date":"2020-01-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/2-peter-003-grow-up\/"},"modified":"2020-01-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T06:00:00","slug":"2-peter-003-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/2-peter-003-grow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Peter 003 – Grow Up"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[106],"series_event":[507],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18176","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-2-peter","series_event-2-peter","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"2 Peter 003 - Grow Up","sermon_date":"20200122","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":7474,"sermon_slides":7477,"sermon_mp3":7478,"sermon_id":"12320019156283","series_or_event":507,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":106,"chapter_and_verse":"1:1-2","sermon_transcript":"2 Peter #3\nGrow Up\n2 Peter 1:1-2\nJanuary 22, 2020\nDr. Andy Woods\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open to 2 Peter 1:1. I understand a lot of you received a mysterious email from me. I feel like Paul in 2 Thessalonians, \u201cConcerning this forged letter, I would not have you to be shaken or unsettled.\u201d\n\nGenerally speaking, if you get an email from me asking for money or asking you to buy something\u2014especially something on eBay\u2014it probably didn't come from me. I mean, I would like to sell some more books, but not that badly.\n\nGenerally, the emails that are going to come from me from the church will end in SLBC.org. If it doesn't say that, it shows you something fishy is going on. I think we\u2019ve been hacked\u2014or whatever the proper technical phrase is. \u201cSpoofed,\u201d someone said. I don't know the difference between the two.\n\nA lot of you are very vigilant, though. I started getting phone calls at 7 a.m. I'm like, \u201cIs my house on fire?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cWell then, don't wake me up at 7 a.m. This email stuff we can handle at 9 a.m.\u2014or 11 a.m. for that matter.\u201d\n\nAll right, let's open our Bibles to 2 Peter 1:1. The last two weeks we started the background issues of the book and actually finished that last week. Who is the author? Peter. And we know a lot about him just by tracing his life through the Gospels and Acts.\n\nThe date of the book would be? AD 64. Who is he writing to? Jews in modern-day Turkey who are clearly saved.\n\nWhere is he writing from? Babylon. So, he's a Jew, writing from a Jewish area (Babylon), to Jews in another Jewish area (though scattered) in north-central Turkey.\n\nOf course, the occasion for writing is he's very concerned about false doctrine going into the Asia minor area. In this case, Gnosticism was coming into that area. We call it an incipient<\/em> Gnosticism, because we don't really have full-blown Gnosticism until the second century AD. But here we have an early form of it.\n\nSo, his purpose is to protect his readers from false teaching. And I can't think of a better subject. Because just like in Peter's day, we have tremendous false teaching like I've never seen before in my lifetime as a Christian coming into the church, particularly here in North America\u2014if not worldwide.\n\nThe structure has three parts to it. We\u2019ll go over that in just a minute. And the message of the book is protection from false teachers.\n\nThe book features a lot of unique characteristics like the subject of knowledge, which we\u2019ll refer to in just a minute.\n\nSo here is our three-point outline. Chapter 1 is a call to maturity. Chapter 2 is a description of these false teachers who are coming\u2014their generic characteristics. And Chapter 3 is a discussion of their doctrine that they're going to bring in, something called uniformitarianism. Interestingly enough, I would say that this is the dominant false worldview of the 20th and the 21st century. We wouldn't have Charles Darwin\u2014and Darwinism and evolution\u2014were it not for uniformitarianism. But a lot more on that later.\n\nWe move into chapter 1, which basically is a call to maturity. We can outline chapter 1 as follows. You have an introduction, a call to growth, a purpose statement, and then he'll make a statement about the coming kingdom. All these things will start making sense as we proceed, I hope and pray.\n\nFirst of all, we have an introduction, verses 1 and 2. This introduction has the writer, the recipients, and the greeting.\n\nNotice, if you will, the writer. Notice, if you will, 1 Peter 1:1, \u201cSimon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ<\/em>.\u201d So, the writer is Simon Peter. And we\u2019ve gone through the arguments that liberals use to say, \u201cPeter really didn't write this. It was written by a forger in the second century A.D., long after the true<\/em> Apostle Peter died.\u201d\n\n2 Peter is probably one of the most attacked books by higher critics. Old Testament equivalents would be Daniel and Isaiah; those books are relentlessly attacked by the critics. And the reason those Old Testament books are attacked is because they predict the future with accuracy.\n\nLiberals, coming from an anti-supernaturalist worldview, don't believe Cyrus\u2019 name, for example, at the end of chapter 44 of Isaiah into chapter 45. \u201cThere's no way the true Isaiah could've called his name out 200 years in advance.\u201d So they just chop up the book of Isaiah and say, \u201cSomeone else wrote that\u2014Deutero-Isaiah, Trito-Isaiah,\u201d etc.\n\nThey do the same kind of game with the book of Daniel. Interestingly enough, they do this with 2 Peter. I do notice a pattern that any book of the Bible that has anything to do with predictive prophecy\u2014like this one does\u2014comes under attack.\n\nI walked you through some of the arguments that they use, because your kids and your grandkids will most likely get hit by these things\u2014particularly if they major in religion, or if they watch the History Channel, Mysteries of the Bible<\/em>, or A&E. They\u2019ll give you the liberal arguments without giving you the countervailing conservative response. I tried to walk you through those arguments in our first session together.\n\nBut all things being equal, we believe that the actual Peter, who walked with the Lord 30 years earlier, is the author of this book. You'll also notice there in verse 1 that Simon Peter describes himself as a bondservant, and the Greek word there is DOULOS. It\u2019s speaking of a common slave.\n\nThirty years before that in the Upper Room, Jesus gave Peter this object lesson in John 13:4-9. And you know the verse. This is in the Upper Room. \u201cJesus\u2026<\/em>got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples\u2019 feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, \u201cLord, do You wash my feet?\u201d Jesus answered and said to him, \u201cWhat I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.\u201d Peter said to Him, \u201cNever shall You wash my feet!\u201d Jesus answered him, \u201cIf I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.\u201d Simon Peter said to Him, \u201cLord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head<\/em>.\u201d\n\nHe got the message, I guess. I mean, it would be somewhat overwhelming to have God incarnate, God in human flesh, the One Who spoke and the universe leapt into existence, get down on His hands and knees and wash your feet, wouldn't it? And that's what was being role modeled in the Upper Room: being a slave, being a servant, giving yourself away on behalf of somebody else. Of course, that didn't fit Peter's definition of a Messiah Who is supposed to rule and reign\u2014not be a common servant.\n\nSo, Peter sort of resisted it initially. But now three decades have passed, and he's learned his lesson. He learned what Jesus said, \u201cFor I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you<\/em>.\u201d Consequently, the Apostle Peter here identifies himself as a DOULOS, or a slave. No doubt reflecting upon that great lesson that he learned from the Lord in the Upper Room three decades earlier.\n\nMany of the disciples (John, Paul, etc.), when they write letters, identify themselves this way, as a bondservant. To be frank with you, when you go into ministry websites and look at people's ministry business cards, I don't know anybody\u2014even yours truly\u2014who identifies himself this way. You know, we\u2019re so busy touting our credentials\u2014radio personality, author, mega-church pastor, business guru, consultant. And I\u2019m wondering if we in 21st-century evangelical Christianity have just completely lost sight of things? Because Peter had a lot of credentials.\n\nPeter not only walked with the Lord, but he actually saw the Transfiguration, which he's going to allude to in this book. And he never touts his credentials. He never articulates things that would raise him above other people. He just identifies himself as a slave.\n\nHe goes on here and not only identifies himself as a slave; but if he has any credentials at all, it's as an apostle. And that's what gives him an authority to write. Because the Lord said in the Upper Room to the 11 (Judas having left the room), \u201cBut when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth<\/em>\u201d (John 16:13). \u201cHe will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you<\/em>\u201d (John 14:26).\n\nBecause Peter was being guided by the Holy Spirit through inspiration, he ended up writing two books of our New Testament, 1 Peter and 2 Peter. And that probably becomes the reason why the Apostle Peter identifies himself here as an apostle.\n\nSo it's his apostleship that gave him the authority to write. But other than that credential, I think that may be the only reason he's mentioning his apostleship. Other than that, he looks at himself as just a common slave or a common servant.\n\nThe definition of \u201capostle\u201d has become very important in our day, because we now have the New Apostolic Reformation. You\u2019ve heard of this, right? The NAR. It is centered there in Bethel Church in Redding, California. Their whole movement is centered around the fact that today we have modern-day apostles.\n\nIf you have modern-day apostles, then the canon of Scripture can't be closed. Because it's the Lord Who gave the apostles the authority to pen His Word. So the moment you open the door to modern-day apostles, you are also opening the door to what we would call an open canon of Scripture.\n\nSo that's why it\u2019s important that we nail down exactly what an apostle is. Hold your place here in 2 Peter for a minute. Go to Acts 1:21-22. You\u2019ll remember that Judas committed suicide, and they were seeking a replacement for Judas. This was just before this Spirit of God fell in Acts 2.\n\nIn the process of seeking this replacement they ultimately settled on Matthias, you\u2019ll recall. But in the process of seeking this replacement, they set out the definition of an apostle. And it says this, \u201cTherefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us\u2014beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us <\/em>[that would be the ascension]\u2014one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection<\/em>.\u201d\n\nSo, if someone wants to claim the title of apostle, there's the criteria right there. You had to have been an eyewitness to the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ\u2014actually going to the very beginning of that ministry, which would be the ministry of John the Baptist. And you have to have followed that ministry as an apostle right up through the crucifixion, resurrection, and ultimately the ascension. So, if that's the definition of an apostle, obviously you don't have apostles today.\n\nEphesians 2:20 says that the Lord laid the foundation of the church with the apostles. Think about this for a minute. How many times do you lay a foundation in a construction project? One time.\n\nSince that foundation has already been laid, there are no new apostles today in the way I'm describing it. And because there's no new apostles today, you are not having new books of the Bible being written. Because if someone claims the mantle of an apostle, then that means that the individual revelations that they are receiving are on equal par with Scripture. And you might as well tuck them into the back of your Bible right next to Revelation 22, the end of the Bible. You can call that Revelation 23.\n\nSo, the reality of the situation is that you don't have apostles today the way we are articulating it. In fact, when I was working at the Bible college, I had a lot of charismatic Pentecostal students. They would introduce themselves as, \u201cI'm apostle this,\u201d and \u201cI'm apostle so-and-so.\u201d What do you do when you're in that situation and you're dealing with people that have a theology that is completely different than your own? Do you alienate them out of the gate?\n\nOr do you try to kill them with a little bit of a sense of humor? What I tried to do is say, \u201cMan! You look good for your age! Because you ought to be about 2000 years old if you're an apostle. What are your exercise tips, nutrition tips, diet tips, etc.?\u201d\n\nPeter here calls himself not just a servant, but an apostle of Jesus Christ. Then we move to the recipients of the letter. Look at the second half there of 1:1, \u201cTo those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ<\/em>.\u201d Now, you\u2019ll notice it says they \u201chave received a faith.\u201d That too is the source of a lot of controversy.\n\nBecause today we have\u2014and we've had for quite some time\u2014a form of Calvinism, or a form of reformed theology, which basically says in our depravity we lack the ability to believe. Even when you're convicted by the Holy Spirit, you can't believe. You\u2019re dead like a rock. The Holy Spirit can convict you, the Word of God can be taught to you, the gospel can be preached to you, and even though the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, you still cannot believe\u2014unless you are given the gift of faith.\n\nSo, God has to regenerate you first so that you can<\/em> believe. So, who determines who is given the gift of faith and who isn't? Well, if you're fortunate enough to be one of the elect, then you're given the gift of faith.\n\nBut what you discover in their theology is that not everybody is of the elect. The elect consists of only a fragment of the human race. So, if you're in that number you're given the gift of faith. Consequently, you\u2019re regenerated first, then you believe.\n\nAnd they camp on verses like this which say you \u201chave received a faith of the same kind as ours.\u201d In fact, when I came to Sugar Land Bible Church, that's the way our doctrinal statement read. Except when you compared it to what it originally said.\n\nThis church was founded in the early 1980s, and it didn't have a doctrinal statement like that. But over time some elders got on the elder board who came from a more aggressive Calvinistic mindset, and they had the doctrinal statement changed in certain areas to teach this idea of the \u201cgift of faith.\u201d\n\nOne of the things I proposed to our elder board when I came here is that we ought to change our doctrinal statement back to what it originally said, because this idea of the \u201cgift of faith\u201d is just not a biblical idea. Fortunately, I had unanimous elder support, and we switched it back to what it originally said. In the process, we got rid of all that \u201cfaith is a gift\u201d hyper-Calvinism language.\n\nDoes this verse teach that faith is a gift? One of the things that\u2019s interesting is in the Greek this is what you called anarthrous, meaning it doesn't have a definite article in front of the word \u201cfaith.\u201d Therefore, it very well could be talking about objective<\/em> faith. In other words, content<\/em>\u2014Scriptural content\u2014rather than subjective personal faith.\n\nSo, people who want to use this verse to teach \u201cfaith is a gift\u201d and all of these kinds of things have to account for this fact, \u201cWhy don't we have a definite article in front of faith?\u201d And when you track through Scripture, faith without the definite article doesn't really refer to personal faith; it refers to simply receiving objective truth.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice this participle here, \u201chaving received.\u201d It\u2019s a participle in Greek, and it's interesting that that participle does not have a passive<\/em> voice. See, if it's passive, you're the receiver of the action. And that's the way it would normally read if faith is a gift. I mean, if faith is something that we don't even have the ability to do on our own because of our depravity\u2014and therefore I have to receive it as some kind of gift from God\u2014the voice here would not be active<\/em> (the way it is), but it would be passive<\/em>.\n\nBut it's not a passive voice; it's an active voice. So, exegetically, this verse doesn't fit with the Calvinistic doctrine that faith is a gift. We, at Sugar Land Bible Church, do not teach faith is a gift. We teach total depravity. But what the Calvinists have done is they've taken a good thing, a biblical thing (total depravity), and they\u2019ve put too much emphasis on it. To them, total depravity means you\u2019re dead like a rock\u2014without any ability to respond to God.\n\nEven<\/em> when the Holy Spirit convicts you, and even when the gospel is preached to you, you can't respond. God has to make some kind of move ahead of time and give you the gift of faith first. So, they've taken depravity and they've overemphasized it.\n\nWe believe in total depravity. But total depravity really does not refer to the intensity<\/em> of our depravity, but it refers to the extent<\/em> of our depravity. In other words, unbelievers can still do good things in the eyes of man. They can't do anything to merit justification, but they can still give money to the Cancer Research Society. Unbelievers know how to apply the brakes at the crosswalk when they see a child walking in the crosswalk.\n\nSo, man is not depraved to the point of total\u2014meaning intensity. What it means is that he's depraved in the extent<\/em> of his depravity. In other words, sin has touched every area of my being. That's what \u201ctotal\u201d means. Calvinists largely, in my opinion, take depravity and overemphasize it. They make it sound like you can't even believe<\/em> on your own, and that's where this whole \u201cgift of faith\u201d idea comes from.\n\nThe proper way that salvation takes place is the Spirit of God (John 16:7-11) convicts the world. And as a person comes under the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, they through their own volition (which God will not override because we are made in His image) make a choice to believe or not to believe.\n\nThe fact that we\u2019re made in His image means I have to have a choice. I mean, aren\u2019t we analogized to husband\/wife, bride\/groom (Ephesians 5), the Lord's relationship to the church? Let me just ask a married man, \u201cDid you choose your wife, or did your wife choose you?\u201d I hope the answer that is \u201cboth,\u201d or you might need some marriage counseling.\n\nGod never overrides free will. He convicts a person so that they are aware of their need to believe. But He doesn't go on the inside of them and override their free will and give them the gift of faith, whether they want it or not. That's the Calvinistic teaching from an overemphasis on total depravity.\n\nSo we believe the Spirit convicts people\u2014no doubt about that. But when we come under the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, we, through volition, have to make a choice to believe or not to believe. And that is not taught in modern day Calvinism, because they think faith is a gift. And they wrongly use verses like this to support their position.\n\nYou'll notice that these recipients \u201chave received a faith of the same kind as ours<\/em>.\u201d You know, that could be a reference to the fact that they\u2019ve received content<\/em>\u2014not subjective faith.\n\nThen, you'll notice also that he says, \u201chave received a faith \u2018of the same kind as ours\u2019.<\/em>\u201d Peter here is putting himself at the same level as everybody else.\n\nPeter was an apostle. We learned that earlier in the verse. But what he is saying here is, \u201cYou have the same kind of faith I have. There's nothing special about me. The faith that I have\u2014the relationship I have with God\u2014you have it too. It\u2019s available<\/em> to you.\u201d\n\nAnd that's very important to understand, because the God of the Bible is not a respecter of persons. God doesn't give certain people a special status\u2014and not other people. It's available to all.\n\nAnd there are many, many verses in the Bible that tell us this\u2014that God is not a respecter of persons. You might want to jot these down: Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25. And it communicates what Peter is speaking of here: the same kind of faith as ours. God is not a respecter of persons.\n\nThen, also in verse one, you'll notice the statement that he makes here: \u201cby the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ<\/em>.\u201d In other words, because Jesus did what He did on our behalf, salvation is open to us. And if we\u2019ve trusted in His finished work, we have a relationship with Him. But that relationship wouldn\u2019t even be a possibility had Jesus not done what He did.\n\nSo, I am not saved\u2014you are not saved (or justified before God)\u2014on the basis of our own works. We are justified before God on the basis of His work and what He did for us 2000 years ago. And the only thing He's asked us to do is to receive it as a gift.\n\nThat's why there's an emphasis here in God, Savior, His righteousness. Because it's not based on human merit, God doesn't show partiality to people as to who receives these blessings and who doesn't. It's available to anybody who wants it.\n\nThe whole world right now, as I speak, is savable. People aren't saved until they trust in the Savior, but every single human being is savable. And it's disseminated with impartiality<\/em>, because it's not based on us! If it was based on me, maybe I\u2019ve worked a little harder for it than someone else. Maybe, you know, I'm a little bit more deserving. But the Bible makes it very clear that these things are impartial\u2014God is not a respecter of persons\u2014because it's not based on our work to begin with.\n\nThen, you go down to verse 2 and you see the greeting. It\u2019s a very common greeting that you have in Peter's writings\u2014and other apostles. Peter says, \u201cGrace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord<\/em>.\u201d So there's some familiar language there: grace and peace.\n\nNotice the order here. Grace first, peace second, because it's grace that gives you the peace. What kind of \u201cpeace\u201d are we talking about here? Well, we\u2019re probably talking about our peace with God. Formerly, we were in a state of warfare with God (Romans 5:10), but now that warfare has been called off and we are at peace with God.\n\nNow that I am at peace with God through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, I have the potential of experiencing what Jesus spoke of in the Upper Room: \u201cPeace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you<\/em>.\u201d\n\nSo, as we walk with the Lord and the Holy Spirit is inside of us, we have an ability to have experiential<\/em> peace that accompanies our positional<\/em> peace. Remember the story of the disciples panicking because a storm arose on the sea of Galilee when they were all out fishing. You know, it's sort of humorous. They\u2019re all panicking, and what's Jesus doing many times in those stories? He's asleep. Some versions say that He was asleep on a cushion or had His head on a cushion, something along those lines.\n\n\u201cLord, don't you care? We\u2019re drowning!\u201d Then Jesus gets up and gives two rebukes. He probably should've given three. Number one, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have woken Me up.\u201d But the second rebuke\u2014He rebukes the wind and the waves. He rebukes the external storm so that everything becomes placid. Then He rebukes the storm happening in the disciples\u2014the panic city that they were in because of their lack of faith. He deals with storm A (external); then He deals with storm B (internal).\n\nPaul the apostle tells us in Galatians 2:20 that Jesus is where now? He is at the right hand of the Father, but He is also where? Inside of us! So, the same Jesus Who was asleep in the midst of the storm lives in you, as your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I don't know what's going on in everybody's lives, but you have an ability to experience calmness in the midst of the storm that you wouldn't have otherwise.\n\nWe have experiential peace. We have positional peace available to us. But you'll notice that these things don't come to us unless we have what first? Grace. The Greek word for grace here is CHARIS, and it basically means \u201cunmerited favor.\u201d\n\nThat's why we have the standing before God that we have: unmerited favor. Favor we didn't deserve. Why is that? Because He did everything for us in our place. And if you have the unmerited favor of God, now you have access to peace.\n\nFirst of all, you are no longer at war with God (positional peace). Secondly, through any storm of life, you have the ability to tap into resources you didn't have before; you have the ability to have experiential peace. CHARIS and EIRENE: grace and peace.\n\nThen he mentions something else here in this greeting. He mentions \u201cknowledge.\u201d He says, \u201cGrace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord<\/em>.\u201d So, knowledge<\/em>\u2014or truth\u2014is an essential ingredient for resisting the allurement of false teachers.\n\nWe\u2019ve used this example before. It's like how they train people in the banking industry to recognize \u201cfunny money,\u201d or phony currency. They make them familiar with the real<\/em> money: it's texture; it's color; what it feels like when it goes across your hand; maybe even what it smells like. Then, all of a sudden, a counterfeit runs across your hand, and you can immediately detect it as counterfeit.\n\nYet you wouldn't have the ability to detect it is counterfeit unless you were familiar with the real thing. Right? It\u2019s like the email that went out this morning. I mean, you guys knew that wasn't from me, right? Or else I would not have gotten calls at seven in the morning. That\u2019s all right; I\u2019m getting over it.\n\nBut it just looked odd. It looked strange. It really didn't look like something I would send out. Because you guys know me. That basically is what knowledge is to you in the spiritual realm. The more familiar you are with the real, the more you can recognize funny money and phony currency etc.\n\nSomething else to understand about knowledge is knowledge is a lot more than filling one's head with data. See, that\u2019s the Bible church understanding of knowledge. That's the Bible college understanding of knowledge, \u201cI fill my head with some facts, I pass the test, and I move on to the next course.\u201d And that really is not what biblical knowledge is. It includes that: facts, data, and information are important.\n\nBut knowledge in the Bible doesn't just stop with facts; its relational. It's like when Genesis 4:1 says, \u201cAdam knew his wife.\u201d That's obviously talking about physical intimacy, because she was impregnated as a result of that. Knowledge, intimacy\u2014that\u2019s how the Bible uses this expression \u201cknowledge.\u201d\n\nPeter, here, wants his audience to have knowledge. Once they have knowledge, they\u2019re going to be able to resist the allurement of the false teachers. And they're going to be able to reach maturity, which is what he wants them to do here in chapter 1.\n\nKnowledge is the truth. And it's not just knowing facts about the truth; it's having a relationship with the God Who loves you and redeemed you and created you.\n\nSecond Peter, as I mentioned last week, is what you call a polemic. What the Apostle Peter does is he takes the Gnostics terms\u2026 Remember, the incipient Gnostics whom he's writing against taught the secret knowledge.\n\nYou had to go through their system to get the secret knowledge. So, some people had it and some people didn't. And the people who had it always looked down with pride on the people who didn't have it.\n\nSo, that's the false understanding of knowledge. Peter takes their term \u201cknowledge\u201d and refills it with a proper meaning. And he's going to do that all the way through the letter.\n\nThe knowledge Peter is talking about is knowledge that's available to every single believer in the Scripture. And it's also the ability to have a relationship with Jesus\u2014to every single person.\n\nIn the Upper Room, remember, they were all panicked that Jesus was leaving. And He says to them, \u201cIt is to your advantage that I'm leaving. Because when I leave, the Paraclete (or the Helper) will come.\u201d\n\nWhen Jesus walked this earth 2000 years ago, He was intimate with 12 people. Actually, to be frank about it, He was probably just intimate with three at the highest level, Peter James and John. If you weren\u2019t in that very inner circle, you just weren't as intimate with the Lord as others.\n\nThat's why He says, \u201cIt\u2019s to your advantage that I'm leaving, because when I leave the Holy Spirit (or the Paraclete) will come, and He will be in you (not upon you\u2014in you).\u201d For how long? Forever (John 14:16-17). And that's why He says, \u201cI will not leave you as orphans<\/em>.\u201d\n\nSo in the age of time that we\u2019re living in, every single Christian has the ability to have an intimate walk with the Lord. You don't have to be Peter, James, or John. You don\u2019t have to be one of the 12. It's available to every child of God.\n\nAnd that's the kind of knowledge Peter is promoting here. It\u2019s universal knowledge, not knowledge available to a select group as was falsely taught by the Gnostics.\n\nSo that takes care of the introduction. Now we go to 2 Peter 1:3-11, where we have the call to growth. So why would Peter in a book about false teaching in chapter 1 not even deal with the subject, but instead call people to maturity?\n\nIf you go to chapter 2 for minute and you look at verse 14, you'll see the answer to that question. Look one chapter to the right, 2 Peter 2:14. It says this of false teachers, \u201c\u2026having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin,<\/em> [watch this:] enticing unstable souls<\/em>.\u201d\n\nSo, whom do the false teachers prey on? They prey on Christians who are immature. They prey on Christians who are not stable.\n\nNow, you go to these mass crusade things, whether it's the late Billy Graham or Luis Palau\u2014I guess the modern-day Billy Graham would be Greg Laurie\u2014these huge crusade type evangelistic outreaches where you\u2019ve got a mass amount of people coming to Christ. When you go into the parking lot after the event and you go to your car\u2014whether it's a stadium or whatever\u2014what you will always see in the parking lot is the kingdom of the cults passing out their literature.\n\nWhether it's the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, whoever, you have to ask yourself at some point, \u201cWhy is it that the kingdom of the cults is targeting these mass evangelistic outreaches where potentially you\u2019ve got a whole bunch of saved people all at once? The answer to that is you\u2019ve got regenerated people now, but they\u2019ve had how much time to grow as a Christian? Zero! So, they don't know any better.\n\nIn fact, anytime someone quotes a Bible verse, they think it's the greatest thing ever! And the kingdom of the cults, when you interact with them, quote Bible verses. As you grow in Christ, you start to see, \u201cWait a minute! They're taking verses out of context.\u201d\n\nBut your brand-new Christian has no insight into that. So, they become a sitting duck for the kingdom of the cults, because false teachers prey on the unstable. The more you grow as a Christian, the more you start to see, \u201cWell, that<\/em> teaching is not right, or that<\/em> teaching is not right.\u201d But if you\u2019ve had no opportunity to grow, the false teachers prey on the unstable.\n\nSo, the first order of business for new Christians is that you have to start to grow. If you don't start to grow, you\u2019re just going to think that anybody that has the three G's (the gift of gab, good looks, and a guitar) is of the Lord as long as they're quoting a Bible verse! That's why Peter is encouraging his audience to mature. He's encouraging his audience to grow up.\n\nIn fact, the cults will come to your door and they will use\u2014particularly the Mormons\u2014Ezekiel 37 to sweep people into Mormonism. Because Ezekiel 37 talks about two sticks joining together, and one of those sticks is the stick of what? Joseph. And they\u2019ll say, \u201cSee, it's Joseph Smith!\u201d\n\nMormonism, of course, teaches that there was a totally new revelation of Jesus Christ in North America a good 1600, 1700, 1800 years after the real Jesus rose from the grave and went back to the Father's right hand. And they\u2019ll look at you with your Bible and they\u2019ll say, \u201cYou only have part of the Revelation. You don't have the full revelation, because you don't have the stick of Joseph (meaning Joseph Smith).\u201d\n\nNow, your average Christian, particularly here in the Bible belt, is not sitting in a church that's teaching him the context of Ezekiel 37. It's not teaching him about how that is speaking of the reunification of the tribes in the thousand year earthly reign of Christ. And if you don't have the right framework because you're not under the proper leadership, teaching you the truth about God's Word, then you're going to be confused as to who Joseph is and you're going to think, \u201cWell, maybe they\u2019re right. Maybe the stick there is Joseph Smith.\u201d My point is, the more we remain in immaturity, the more vulnerable we are to what we would call the kingdom of the cults.\n\nThat, quite frankly, is one of the great purposes of the local church. What is the purpose of the local church? Why do we come to church? Ephesians 4:11-16 says that God has put certain spiritual gifts into His church, one of which is the gift the pastor-teacher. And the proper use of that gift is to bring the saints to maturity, \u201cthat we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting<\/em>.\u201d\n\nSo, the purpose of church\u2014the purpose of what we\u2019re doing here\u2014or any other time we gather\u2014is primarily designed to bring saved people to a greater level of maturity. When saved people climb to a greater level of maturity, then they\u2019re less vulnerable to false teaching.\n\nIt's a lot like my daughter when she was very little and was crawling on the ground. Everything she saw on the ground she would put in her mouth. She had no discernment. But as you grow, as you mature, as you come of age, you stop doing such things. So, I'm just giving you some explanations as to why Peter is encouraging or exhorting his audience to maturity.\n\nIn the medical profession you have what are called obstetricians, those who help with the birthing process. And then you have what are called pediatricians, those who help the newborn child to mature, to grow, to develop properly, to have the right kind of nutrition, and all of those kinds of things. And anybody who knows anything about the medical profession will tell you that those are two totally different disciplines.\n\nThose are two different specialties altogether. In the same way, the body of Christ has obstetricians, those who help with the birthing process (spiritual birth), and that's the gift of evangelism. Then there are pediatricians who are not primarily working with the unsaved (the way an evangelist is) but with the saved; they are trying to help the saved to grow right, and that's the gift of pastor-teacher.\n\nJust like in the medical world, you typically don't have an obstetrician who is also a pediatrician or pediatrician who is also an obstetrician. Generally speaking, when you look at different gift mixes in local churches, you don't have a pastor who is also an evangelist. Now, sometimes there are pastors who are evangelists\u2014both\u2014because God has gifted them that way. But, generally speaking, those are two completely different gifts, and they have two completely different purposes.\n\nSo the purpose of the local church is not to get all the unsaved people in the door we can. It's to equip the saints, primarily through the teaching of the Word of God, so that they become mature. They start to develop properly. And as you start to develop properly, guess who becomes the evangelist? You<\/em> become the evangelist! Because you're being equipped in your local church for that task. Peter here, functioning as the leader of a series of saved people, is encouraging them to grow.\n\nSo, what does the call to growth look like? It has three things to it. Number one, the provisions for growth (verses 3 and 4). In other words, what resources has God given us to reach maturity? And once we reach maturity, we will no longer be susceptible to false teachers. God, in verses 3 and 4, has given us provisions.\n\nThen, number two. Once you start to grow, what does it look like (verses 5-7)? In other words, if someone is going to claim that they are a maturing Christian, what characteristics should we see in their life (verses 5-7) ?\n\nThen, number three, why grow? What are the benefits of growth? Because, let's be honest, we talk about growing what? Growing pains. I mean, it\u2019s not easy to mature. It's not easy to grow up. I mean, I was happy living at my parents\u2019 house rent free and everything. Had they not kicked me out, I would probably still be there to this day.\n\nMatter of fact, I was watching one of these reality TV shows. They had a guy in his 50s or 60s who was still living in the exact same room he had at his parents\u2019 house in high school. His room was exactly like he had it in high school\u2014with everything on the wall. I think it was a Dr. Phil show.\n\nIt's like, \u201cWhat's wrong with this guy?\u201d I mean, he's an able-bodied man. He's now in his 50s or 60s. There you're dealing with someone who\u2014for whatever reason\u2014just shut down and decided he didn't want to grow up! Why would someone do that? Because there's always pain involved with growing up.\n\nSo, when Peter is exhorting us to mature, it's not always the easiest thing to do so. Therefore, we need to know the benefits of growing up! Because when you grow up, you get certain privileges, right? In the same way, Peter is going to describe (verses 8-11) five blessings that come your way because<\/em> we grow up.\n\nBut let's look, very fast, at the provisions God has given us for growth. You'll notice that what God orders, He pays for. God is not like the guy who sits around at the restaurant nervous because he forgot his wallet at home. He\u2019s worried that he is going to have to wash dishes, because he\u2019s ordered this sumptuous meal and he has no ability to pay for it. That's not God. If God orders it, He pays for it!\n\nIf God authorizes something like our growth, He gives us the tools for achieving it. And that's what you discover there in verses 3 and 4.\n\nNotice verses 3 and 4. \u201cSeeing that His divine power has granted to us [what's the next word there?] everything<\/em>.\u201d That\u2019s a very important word; that\u2019s why I\u2019ve got it underlined.\n\n\u201c\u2026everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust<\/em>.\u201d\n\nYou see the end there? \u201cEscape the corruption that is in the world by lust\u201d is escaping the licentious teaching of the false teachers. Because the Gnostics taught a dualism: the spiritual world is good; the physical world is bad. Which is a false teaching. And if you buy into that, you could just say, \u201cWell it's really not me making a decision to gossip; it\u2019s this terrible tongue that I have.\u201d\n\nSo, you\u2019re blaming sin on this doctrine that the false teachers had that the physical world is evil. People do this all the time, \u201cGosh, I lose my temper a lot. I do that because I'm German\u201d or \u201cI'm Irish.\u201d No. You\u2019re carnal; that\u2019s why you're losing your temper all the time. Don't blame it on something else.\n\nThat's what he means there by \u201cescaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.\u201d And to achieve this growth, God has given us everything we need. And the word \u201ceverything\u201d means what? It means everything.\n\nNow, connecting everything to His promises is a doctrine that we call the Sufficiency of the Scripture<\/em>. Which is a doctrine that's drastically in decline today. Because many places believe in the inspiration<\/em> of the Scripture and the inerrancy<\/em> of the Scripture, but they don't believe the Scripture is enough.\n\nSo, they look at the Bible like it's a piece of Swiss cheese with holes in it. \u201cI\u2019ve got to plug up the hole with something else. So, if I want to learn how to govern a church correctly as a church leader, the pastoral epistles aren't enough. I\u2019ve got to go over to Stephen Covey for help.\u201d\n\nIf I'm counseling someone, \u201cThe Bible is not enough for counseling. I\u2019ve got to fill up the holes with Rogers, Young, Freud,\u201d etc.\n\n\u201cIf I want to understand origins, Genesis 1-11 is not enough. I\u2019ve got to plug up the problems\u2014or the holes\u2014or the gaps\u2014with Charles Darwin.\u201d\n\nSo, what you discover is that there is a total decline in evangelicalism concerning the sufficiency of the Scripture. That's one of the reasons that I'm involved with Chafer Seminary. Because Chafer Seminary takes a position on that, where a lot of seminaries won\u2019t. They\u2019ll take a position on inerrancy\/inspiration, but that's only half the battle. What do you believe about sufficiency?\n\nAnd what you discover about the Bible in terms of its own claims, is that the Bible claims to be sufficient for all matters of faith and godliness. Because Paul, writing to Timothy, says \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God<\/em>.\u201d That's fine. But in verse 17, he gets into sufficiency, \u201cso that the man of God may be adequate, equipped<\/em> [for what? Not just good works\u2014] for every good work<\/em>.\u201d That's a statement about sufficiency.\n\nEphesians 1:3, \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That's a statement about sufficiency.\n\nHow about the armor of God that we\u2019re looking at on Sunday mornings in Sunday school? \u201cIn addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one<\/em>.\u201d That's a statement about sufficiency.\n\nI hope one of the things in which you grow in confidence in your Christian life is that you grow in confidence in the sufficiency of the Scripture. That the Scripture is enough for you to achieve godliness in this life.\n\nPsalm 119. Earl knows that psalm pretty well. He's itching to teach it pretty quick, down the road here. He\u2019s been working on it. It's got how many verses in it, Earl? 176 verses. It\u2019s a tremendous psalm. I think it's the longest in the psalter.\n\nEach line begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it goes about 8 verses per section. In Psalm 119:99 you find a statement about the sufficiency of the Scripture. The psalmist says, \u201cI have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation<\/em>.\u201d\n\nThink about that for a minute. As a very young person sitting under teachers, by simply giving yourself to God's Word you can have more insight than even those who are older and further along in life than you are. That's a statement about sufficiency.\n\nAnd sufficiency is to be contrasted with the Gnostic teachers who were claiming the secret knowledge. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to come through us to get the secret knowledge.\u201d Peter is saying, \u201cNo, you don't. Look at what you have in the Bible. You have God's promises, which are granted to you concerning everything<\/em> pertaining to life and godliness.\u201d\n\nSo, what are your resources for growth? Power (verse 3), knowledge (verse 3), promises (verse 4,) participation in the divine nature (verse 4). We will pick it up there in verse 3 next time.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t