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Speaker 1Amen. How are y'all this morning? Good. Amen. So, time zones, I'm coming back from a nine hour time difference.
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So, it's been just the past three days that we've been back and so, I'm excited and happy to be here right now but don't ask me about anything in four hours, alright? I will be asleep. Would you all stand with me and we're going to sing a real real barn burner to start off with. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Hymn number three thirty eight.
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If you wanna find your part and there are plenty of them in this song. Wonderful grace of Jesus.
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Speaker 2Wonderful grace of Jesus greater than all my sin how shall my tongue describe it where shall its praise begin taking away my burden setting my spirit free for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions, singing greater for than all my sin and shame. I wonder for the precious name of praise his name wonderful grace of Jesus reaching to all the lost by it I have been pardoned save to the uttermost reaches me.
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Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Wonder the mountains sparkling like a fountain all sufficient grace for even me broader than the scope of my transgression sing it greater far than all my sin and shame oh magnify the precious name of Jesus praise his name on the last wonderful grace of Jesus reaching the most defile by its transforming power making him God's dear child purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity. For the wonderful grace of Jesus, rejest me. Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me.
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Broader than the scope of my transgressions, sing it greater far than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise
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Speaker 1his Those are times where I miss Scott right there. When he's hitting those high notes, I don't have to. Redeem. We're going to sing hymn number three fifty six, Redeemed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
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Speaker 2Redeemed how I love to pro blood of the lamb, redeemed by his infinite mercy, his child, and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed redeemed redeemed redeemed child and forever redeemed and so happy in Jesus no language my rapture can tell I know that the light of his presence with me doth continually dwell redeemed redeemed by the blood of the lamb redeemed redeemed his child and forever I am I think of my blessed redeemer I think of him all the day long I sing for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed, his child and forever I am on the last I know I shall see in his beauty the king in whose law I delight who lovingly guarded my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night redeemed redeemed by the blood of the lamb redeemed child and
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Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements, not a ton of announcements this morning but we have Monday nights happening tomorrow night. Monday nights, meal music and a message. Carl, what's the message?
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Colossians one, Paul's work for the church, suffering as you serve, Alright. It's good and we'll be serving supper. Also, meal music message tomorrow night here, 06:00. Happens at the same time as Awana is happening starting out in this room. Pouring scripture into the hearts of these kids and y'all know that I was talking about coming back from different time zones.
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So, Tanya and Pascal and I were three on the group of 22 that went to Israel over spring break. So, we're going for it's a ten day trip, you know. While we were there, I was flooded with memory of scripture just from being in those places. It was amazing the well that I'm drawing from and it was because somebody took the time to pour into when I was a little kid. It was amazing to see.
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I didn't have the same kind of mystical experience that a lot of people describe. Mine was more just being flooded with scripture and seeing and connecting that to real Earth life, you know? It's really cool. So, that's happening. 05:45 to 07:30.
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I wanna pour in scripture in the kid's mind to reach their hearts. Precept study is still going on. They're in Acts. They're getting, how far along are you? Chapter 15?
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All right, that's pretty good. Working through Acts, it's a good study. You can pick it up right where they are right now. Each week, we have refit meet in this room right here. They meet in here, they turn off the lights, and they turn on other lights, and turn on music, and it is absolutely a lot of fun.
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It's a huge amount of fun, but they also it's scriptural, and they pray, and they do their exercise dancing too. And it's really, really good. So anyway, refit is happening. Tuesdays, 05:15, free class each week. If you do not have tickets for this movie here, then you will not be seeing it here, okay?
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The tickets are already sold. I mentioned this so you don't forget to go if you do have tickets. But Unplanned is the movie. It's gonna be out tonight at the Twin. But if you didn't get a ticket for it, you don't have a ticket for it.
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Does that make sense? All two forty seats are sold. But it's still going on elsewhere in the nation. I'm gonna ask that you would, if you would, pray about the impact that this movie will have because everything can be a political lightning rod when you're dealing with this issue. This is one woman's story, and it's earnestly told from what I understand, and it is sincerely put out there.
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So if you would be praying for the impact that this movie will have on people as they see it, I'd appreciate it. I think that's connect hour happens still between services. And this reminds me of Easter. We're gonna be serving pancakes before the first service and during the connect hour, so between the services. Pancakes and the normal accoutrement that go with it.
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Dave Kaufman is leading that. But connect hour is still happening around ten. And for anything else, it should be in your bulletin, your weekly bulletin. Anybody have one that I've forgotten? Anything I've forgotten?
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Carl, Diane, anything? Nothing? Alright. Would you all stand up then and greet one another, and we'll bring you back together with a song. Hallelujah.
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Y'all know this chorus. It's a hallelujah. Hymn number one eighty nine.
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Speaker 2I will praise him I will praise will praise I will praise him will praise
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Speaker 1Would y'all pray with me? God, we thank you for this morning or this new morning. We have breath in our lungs and we'll praise you. We thank you for a gathering place where we can do that together all gathered in your name, lord and I thank you for your word that is so good and so precious and so sweet. God, I thank you for that.
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I thank you for all that you have provided, lord and as we are responsible with everything that you provided, I thank you lord that you've given us opportunity to give back so that others may have the gospel message that which you presented to us and we accepted. I pray that lord, we would be presented to others. I pray that they'd be accepted. In Jesus name, lord, we ask you to bless these tithes and offerings that we place in these plates. Lord, that you would bless and multiply them to do your kingdom's work here on earth just as it is in heaven.
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Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. So before we went, before I left on this trip to Israel, I had been for the last three weeks doing Old Testament flash forward into New Testament. So there was a lot of talk about Moses and the Israelites wandering around the desert.
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And then I went and I wandered around the Israeli desert for a while. But, we're gonna go forward. I was kinda doing that in a holding pattern, so I didn't start second Peter before we left. But today, we're gonna start second Peter. Second Peter, we're in that chronological study going forward.
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The last book that we did together through the book was second Timothy. That's the last that we hear from Paul in the New Testament. So, that was last words of Paul were to Timothy and second Timothy and then we're going to study together. Second Peter, we're starting in one. It says one to four but I actually am going to go to verse 11 today.
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So, one and two are the introduction, kind of the salutation of the letter, and then three through 11 is Peter's own mini sermon. Had a hard time stopping at four because I was just getting started there. So this is it. One through 11 today. I'm gonna use a New International Version.
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I don't usually do that. I don't mind it, but I don't usually do it. I use the New American Standard primarily in the New Testament because when I translate out of Greek and into English, the New American Standard sounds more like the way I talk. It might not sound exactly like the way y'all talk, but it's the way that I talk. So that's the one I prefer.
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New King James is the one that I grew up with. That's my Bible that I, you know, do devotions out of and all that. And the New Living Translation is one Carl uses on Monday night. All of the new modern translations are great, and King James is amazing. That's a fantastic translation.
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New International, I probably use less than anything else, but I like it for this book. I think it's great. Three chapters of second Peter, we're gonna go with that. What does anybody know what this is off the top of your head? It's a papyrus.
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Yes, that is papyrus. It's obviously since it's creased there in the middle, it's part of a codex, meaning a book rather than a scroll. So this, on this side, is the end of first Peter, and this is the beginning of second Peter. Yeah, they're a good guess. That's right.
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Since I told you where we were gonna be this morning, that's where we're starting off, right in the middle there. But that's the reason I put it up. This is the earliest manuscript, we call it. The earliest manuscript that we have for second Peter is the Badmer Papyrus. There's some this is in a collection, a museum collection, but the Badmer Papyrus has first Peter on one on the same page as second Peter.
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Does that make sense? There are people who would say, well, second Peter was added later or written later, written into a different context. It's made to fight this heresy, and it's not really Peter. Don't believe that. It's right here.
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This is from the third or fourth century, which is two hundreds to the three hundreds in that range, and I just wanted to put it up there. That's actually chapter one through five on this side of the page. And it's pretty cool to see that. And after having come back from that trip and being in the places where these things happen, it so connects it to reality. I wanted to include that.
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This is the way it starts off. Simon Peter. Actually, says Simeon Peter, Shimon, which is the Hebrew way of saying that. Peter used several different like scribes. He used Sylvanus to write first Peter.
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He used Mark to write the gospel of Mark. That's Peter's story told through Mark. But Simeon Peter probably used a different scribe for this book. Simon Peter, he describes himself this way, Dulos, a servant and apostolos, an apostle. An apostle is one who is sent out and a slave is one who do does the bidding of their master, right?
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So, Simon Peter, the one you're thinking about, the guy who jumped out of the boat, the guy who claimed you are the Christ, son of the living God, and then immediately said, no, you're not going up to Jerusalem. Peter said, get behind me, Satan, right? Same Peter, impetuous Peter that we know from the gospels. The one who pulls out his sword in the garden and slices off an ear of a soldier, that guy. Simon Peter, slave of Christ, apostolized, sent out by Jesus Christ.
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Now, a normal letter from that time would be something like this. It would have the sender and the receiver and then it would say greetings. So it'd be Ray to Francisco, greetings. Just that simple. It might be son to father, greetings.
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And then the rest of the letter would be something like, send me money. Right? Okay. It's and if if it went into any further explanation, would be Ray, the pastor, Francisco, the chef, greetings. Okay?
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That would be the way that it go about it. Simon goes a little further. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. That's his identity. And then this is his recipient right here.
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It's a group of people. To those, all of those, to those who through the righteousness of our God, and our savior, Jesus Christ, equal God and savior, Jesus Christ. To those who through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours. That's the group. So, it's Christians, specifically Gentile Christians.
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In this case, I think I can show you that in the text but to those who through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ have received. That means you already are a believer. A faith as precious as ours. Grace and peace be yours in abundance. Now what's that gonna bring on?
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Y'all know point number one. Point number one at the beginning of every book is this, always start with grace and peace. Always. You can do that. You know?
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You can start off without having to make someone prove their worth for your conversation. You can just go in with grace, unmerited love and favor, and peace. You can start with peace instead of starting with war. Introductory point, always start with grace and peace. He says to those recipients, grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God.
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Oh, that's good. Through the knowledge of God, knowledge here is this, epigenosis. Epigenosis is more than just gnosis. It's epigenosis. Epi means on, upon, over, or fitting.
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It intensifies gnosis, which is knowledge. Knowledge gained through firsthand relationship properly. It is firsthand contact knowledge that is fitting to a firsthand experiential knowing. So he says, through the knowledge of God, that's through the knowledge of God, you may have grace and peace and it be yours in abundance. That's awesome.
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That, you can stop right there. We're just two verses in. That's pretty good. But then he again, the second time in two verses, it's an and and he equates God and Jesus Christ right there together. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and more specifically of Jesus Christ, our lord.
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Our lord, Simon Peter is a good little Jewish boy. He's writing this about '65, '66, maybe sixty seven AD. Do you remember that in Acts at Cornelius' house, Peter has this vision. He sees a sheet coming down from heaven and it's got on it all of these animals and all of these foods which he has never eaten before and it says, take and eat. And then Peter says, oh Lord, you know I have never done that.
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I'm a good little Jewish boy. I know the rules. I don't eat those things. I wouldn't do that and he says, do not call unclean that which I have called clean. That was a beginning of something this good little Jewish boy.
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He argues back. You know that no unclean thing has ever touched my lips. Think about this. The woman at the well in Samaria, when Jesus stopped and he shares with this while the disciples are back in town and then it says, they stayed there for three days. Peter, good little Jewish boy in Samaria, half breeds, dirty, unclean, He didn't eat anything the whole time he was there, apparently, because none of that would have been kosher.
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He's now saying, our lord, ours, Jewish flavor Christians, pagan background, Gentile Christians. It's he's our lord. So, introductory point, I should say, number two, since I did it as an introduction and then I've got a three point sermon left to go after the introduction. Introductory point number two is grace and peace come abundantly through an experiential knowledge of God. That is the way that you get to grace and peace.
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It's through an experiential knowledge of God and more specifically of Jesus, our lord. That's what binds us together in the family of God. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our lord. That's the salutation. That is the Ray to Francisco.
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It's Peter to those who have received the gift that God has offered. Even in that little section right there, he's already pointing towards three of the major themes of this book and we'll go from there. The mini sermon has three points and it's this, God is the one who provides. He has given. Now, the believer responds to that provision.
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So, the believer has responsibility and then, the last couple verses will be about why it is that godliness is important. So, if I were to state that in other words, more theological maybe words, it would be God is sovereign and he provides. God is sovereign. He is the king and he can say what goes. He set the rules.
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He made the rules. He has known since before the foundations of the world but man is also responsible. How can that be? I don't know because I have a finite mind but I know that he says that that's true and everything that Peter says in this book about the knowledge of God, he says that God has made it evident and real to us and then, there's a requirement after that. Does that make sense?
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You're responsible for what? You know. Man's responsible. Therefore, striving for godliness is important. Now, you can beat yourself up trying to be godly and if you do it on your own, you will fail over and over and over and over.
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So, it's about being a vessel or conduit for the God for God to work in and through. Alright. So, here is again that salutation. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, that's him. To those who through the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ, have received a faith as precious as ours.
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He is saying that their faith, these Gentile Christians he's writing to, is just as precious as his faith. So, there are a lot of people today who will tell you that all roads lead to heaven. It doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you're sincere and they are wrong. That's heresy and that's wrong but there are many ways to get to Jesus. That make sense?
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There's only one way to God. Jesus said it. I'm the way, the truth, and life. No man comes to the father except by me but there are many different ways. You can go through a horrible childhood and get to Jesus because of that and you can go through a golden, little, Awana childhood and you can get to Jesus from that.
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Are you with me? But getting to Jesus is the point at which you have access to the father. So, their faith from the great apostle Peter It leaves out the word host and host is a simple little conjunction. It's seeing that or since you have this knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, our lord and since his divine power, this is the next thing. So, we have God which coming from a good little Jewish boy would be God the father, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of course.
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He links with that and Jesus Christ, our lord, son, and then, immediately, since his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. Seeing that, his divine power, that's the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, it's to your advantage that I go away because there's just one of me limited by time and space right now because I've emptied myself but God's divine power, his spirit will be available for those who put their trust in me. His divine power has given given us, Christians, everything we need for a godly life. Some of your translations may say, his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.
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Are you with me? Still with me? Still with Peter. Alright. So, God's provision is first.
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In verses three and four, he's going to talk about that. His divine power has given. What has he given? That which he provides. He has given us everything we need for a godly life.
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Amen. Through our knowledge of him, same knowledge there. Through the knowledge of God and Jesus, our lord, we have access to his divine power. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Amen.
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That was the last three sermons were about the glory of God. And the goodness of God to provide. God is sovereign. Through these, these what? Through his own glory and goodness.
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Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises. Remember how first Peter starts off that that incorruptible hope that is kept in heaven for you that cannot be spoiled? He's given us very great and precious promises. Though you grow weary, I will raise you back up or low, I am with you always even to the end of the age. He tells the truth about it.
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In this life, you will have trouble. You will have trials but take heart. I've overcome the world. Those are great and precious promises. It's through his own glory and goodness that he did it.
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Did he have to? Did he have to make that available to a sinful group of people? No. But he does. Through that.
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He has given us very great and precious promises. There is a so that. I love a good so that. So that why? Through them, through these great and precious promises, you may yourself actually participate in the divine nature.
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Does that mean that you will become a god? No. Thank you. It has been misconstrued that way throughout the ages. There's no new heresy.
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There are just plenty of old heresies that are played over and over again. Through them, his very great and precious promise you may actually participate in the divine nature. So, when Jesus says, I will send a comforter someone who will guide you into the truth and someone who will illumine scripture and someone who will convict you of sin someone who will convince you of the righteousness of God That's a great and precious promise of God and when you submit your will to that still, small voice, the divine power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, you will participate in the divine nature. Amen. Having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
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You could still be hung up in it, he's saying. You could in practice still be hung up in the corruption that comes from your evil desires and not knowing what to do with them. Living by the lust of the flesh. But you don't live that way anymore because he's given you everything you need for life and godliness. That's the temporal side of this precious great promise right here but there's also the you have avoided eternal damnation and punishment for your sin and so, you have escaped that corruption in the world that's caused by evil desire.
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But you are participating in the divine nature. You will be evermore drawn in as you submit your will into God's plan for you. So, God's provision is evident. It's evident that he did it. He gave it.
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Yes, we received it but he's the one who gave it. It is evident that God is sovereign. After the fact, Christians, after the fact, if you look back on your salvation, do you think it was you? Or do you think it was God reaching out to you? Are you with me?
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Was God sovereignly in charge? Yes. Are you still responsible? Yes. Here it is.
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And man is responsible. So, for this very reason, what reason? Because God has provided, because he's sovereign, because he has given you new life, because this is a letter to Christians. For this very reason, because God has provided, you then make every effort or make haste as quickly as you can. It says, make haste.
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Make every effort to add to your faith which you all have because I'm not writing to people right now that don't have this faith. Not technically, it's not an evangelistic sermon. This is a sermon to Christians about the practice of the Christian life. For this reason, make every effort to the common faith that you all have. Add to that goodness.
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The Greek word right there is is what they always refer to truth, goodness, and beauty, the classical school's motto, or Plato or Aristotle talk a lot about arete. It was several hundred years before that, but that is a Greek word that's a Greek concept. He's saying add to your faith, practice that is good. You can do that if you'll submit your will to the will of God and he works that will because God is good. Does that make sense?
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If he's living his will out in you, you will be adding to your faith that goodness. This list, there's a specific sortites, I think is what they call it. It's a list. It's not necessarily in order. It's not like stair steps that have to be taken in order.
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Although I've read two books this week that said, no, you have to do these in order. I don't think so. Add to your faith goodness, and add to your goodness knowledge, and add to knowledge. That word for knowledge actually is a different word. So the first time he used it, and the second time he used it is epigenosis, which is over and above knowledge.
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This is a functional or working knowledge that is gleaned from firsthand personal experience, experientially knowing. It's connecting theory to application. I'm reminded of the old evangelistic illustration. You've probably heard an evangelist say, there's a tightrope. It's over the Grand Canyon, and there's a great chasm fixed, there's this tightrope, and there's a guy with a wheelbarrow.
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And he said, do you believe I can walk across that to the other side? And somebody says, yeah, I believe it. He goes, get in the wheelbarrow. That's the experiential knowledge of it, okay? If you believe it, apply it.
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So this is applied knowledge, applied connecting theory to application. It's application knowledge gained through a direct relationship. And to goodness add knowledge. And to knowledge, self control. Self control we've talked a lot about because it's in the list, and Titus it's in the list, and Timothy about elements for a good elder, qualifications for elder actually, and the knowledge adds self control, and to self control, perseverance.
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Perseverance, godliness. Godliness, the word godliness there is eusebia, eusebia, and it means good or well and pay homage or venerate. Properly, it's about how you worship and worship well, okay? Add to your perseverance, worshiping well. So, someone's in a response to the things of God which shows itself in godly piety or reverence.
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It is the godly heart response that naturally expresses itself in reverence towards God and also everything else that he calls sacred. Like God desires mercy, not sacrifice, right? He the things of God. It's recognizing the things of God and having the same opinion about them as he does. So to godliness, add mutual affection.
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This one's a much shorter. Mutual affection is actually the word Philadelphia. Philadelphia is brotherly love or mutual affection. That's the way we love one another within the body of Christ, ideally, is like a family. But he says, and the mutual affection or brotherly love, add also love.
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So what do you think this type of love is going to be? If that last one was brotherly love, this is going to be agape love. Unconditional, God's type of seeking the best of the other type of love. So this list, there were eight qualities he listed in it. He says, if you possess these qualities, and so you might not.
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You get that? You have been given all you need for life and godliness. You have been. He says that, the power of the Holy Spirit but since God has given that sovereignly as a gift, you still have to be with your own responsibility. You still have to surrender to that will.
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Are you with me? And as you do, then you will possess these qualities. It's not as binary as lost or saved. It is as you will submit your will to his. You will go from a place of darkness in your practice into a place of light in your as you submit to him.
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If you possess these qualities, so that means you might not. If you possess them, which qualities? Faith, goodness, knowledge. It does matter. Growing in knowledge, it does matter to have firsthand personal experience.
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Doing your quiet time is great. Putting your quiet time by the test by trying to live it out is more experiential. Self control, knowing that something is a sin is one thing, but being able to under the power of the Holy Spirit renounce that sin and walk away from it. Perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, love. If you have these in increasing measure, oh, that's good.
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That gets us back to our little timeline slide, right? So, God chose from the beginning how this would be. He knew we would need a savior and so Christ, the son, came in his life, in his death, the burial, his resurrection. He made a way for us to be saved and not just saved but also sanctified. The gospel witness has gone forward.
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At some point, somebody shared with you the story of Jesus. If you're a believer, whether it was from his word, might have been Peter that shared it directly with you or Paul but at some point, the gospel witness went forward and at some point, you believe and when you believe you were given the Holy Spirit to do the work of sanctification, it's this place, his divine power has given us everything that we need for a godly life. If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they, these qualities, the kind of I mean, the goodness and the other seven of those, self control, brotherly love, and agape love. If you possess these qualities and increase in measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me ask you.
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How many of y'all want to be ineffective and unproductive? Does anybody want to be ineffective or unproductive? The two words there are great. Ineffective means it's argos, ah, ergos, ah. Ergos means no work.
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And unproductive is acarpos, and acarpos is no fruit. No work and no fruit. Who wants to be ineffective and unproductive? Nobody does. As a boss, you don't want anybody on staff that's ineffective or unproductive, do you?
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Peter's actually making a call for holiness. He is. He's he's daring to say, submit to God. He's given you everything that you need. So, walk in the way that he's made.
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Ineffective synonym right here or definition is idle, lazy, thoughtless, unprofitable, and then it goes a step further to even injurious To be ineffective is counterproductive. Idle, lazy, thoughtless, unprofitable, and injurious. And then unproductive is unfruitful. It's no fruit. Technically, ah, carpass is no fruit.
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Barren, profitless and I have one more. This is the dictionary lexicon definition. I'll read it to you. Icarpas, unfruitful refers to any thought or action that is not originated or empowered by the Lord. IE, that which is not born of faith or birth and empowered by God.
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By definition, all decisions that are not born of faith are sin. Romans fourteen twenty three. Which automatically renders them eternally fruitless. This is the case regardless of how impressive or acceptable they are in the eyes of the world. You can be the smartest and best looking, and you can have the greatest amount of material resources.
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But if it's done apart from faith, if it's done and was not birthed and empowered by God, it is eternally fruitless, unproductive, and ineffective. We are striving for a place in the good old gospel way where we're trusting God for salvation and for our sanctification as we serve. Okay. He stated that now in verse eight, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have these things, these eight qualities, whoever does not have these is both nearsighted and blind.
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How are you both nearsighted and blind? It seems like it's either one or the other, doesn't it? Nearsighted and blind is you don't see well, you only see what's in front of you, and you are voluntarily closing your eyes to that which you do see. Is that a terrible description? For someone who has trusted Christ for salvation, for fire insurance, if there's someone who has trusted Christ for salvation but just stops and insist on having his will at that point, you're ineffective, you're unproductive For yourself and for anyone else.
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If your faith and practice don't match. Whoever does not have them is both nearsighted and blind, Forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Salvation, yes, sets you free from the power of sin. It actually cancels the power of sin. Don't forget that you've been cleansed.
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Don't forget that God has done this, that he has cleansed you. Don't walk away as if it was no big thing, because it is. Okay. So man's responsible. Peter says, God is sovereign.
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He's given you everything you need for life and godliness. That includes his indwelling Holy Spirit that speaks man is responsible. You know this already. In fact, the last word in first in second Peter three eighteen, he says, you know these things already. You already know these things.
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That's that's his last word to him. He's just reiterating. Man's responsible. Therefore, striving for godliness is important. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, because of these things, because God is sovereign and because he doesn't have expectations, therefore, my brothers and sisters, he says it again, make every effort.
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It is about buckling down. It is about taking the time and looking to him, submitting your will. Make every effort to confirm your calling and your election that points towards God's sovereignty. He didn't have to save you but since he has, would you do good? Would you be tempered and self controlled?
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Do you have brotherly love and agape love? Make every effort to confirm your calling and your election because striving for godliness is important. He gives you two different ways then. One negative example and one positive. First, he says, if you do these things, you will never stumble.
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That doesn't mean you'll never sin but you won't stumble irrevocably as Paul says in one place. You will never stumble. You're not gonna stumble over the chasm into hell if you will practice these things out of the divine power that God has given. For if you do these things, you will never stumble and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Yes, you are missing hell and you are gaining heaven.
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That's what he's saying. Now, God has given it. You've already accepted it. The faith is there at the beginning. He's not saying you have to do these things in order to get in heaven.
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That's not it. It's not about works. That's the end of the passage. So God is sovereign. Man is responsible, and striving for godliness is important.
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The rest of this book is going to be it's going to mention the knowledge of God multiple times, and it's going to be knowing and putting it into practice. He's also going to talk about false teachers in the second chapter. He talks about false teachers because there were a lot of em sharing a lot of errant views of God and views of Christ and views of the way that you had to walk. So, Peter, the good Jewish boy, is writing these Gentile Christians and saying, it does matter how you walk. It does.
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He's not advocating or arguing for circumcision or the Jewish way but he is arguing for a holy life. So this is one picture from the trip to Israel. This was fun. I'm not going to share for a long, long time, but I do we did some baptisms this morning. So this was a baptism.
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Inger Peterson, I don't know if you all know her, but she's a 12 year old girl, comes to the first service, and she and her mom, Kim Peterson, went on this trip to Israel. And so Tanya and I went a couple days late. Y'all knew that because we're here after the spelling bee that time. So we went a couple of days late and caught up. We got to the airport, I don't know, 09:45, rented a car, and we were driving up to the Sea Of Galilee.
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Got there about 01:00 in the morning. And this is 08:00 the next morning, I'm baptizing people in the Jordan River. That's a pretty big bang to start off a trip, you know? But that's Anger Peterson under the water right there. And three of our other folks kind of were rebaptized because it was the Jordan River, but that was her first baptism.
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And she was identifying with the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ being raised to walk in newness of life. This morning, that's Dean Lampa. Dean Lampa did the same action this morning being baptized in this pool right up here upfront. And then he had he spoke a testimony just by being baptized. That was he was identifying with the death of Christ and being raised to walk in newness of life.
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It was him striving for godliness. An obedient step is one of the initial obedient steps that that that Christ asked for us. Christ said to John the Baptist who was baptizing for repentance. He asked him to baptize him and John said, no, you don't need this. You don't need to repent.
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You don't have any sin and he said, nope. It's fitting for all righteousness that I do this, given an example and he goes, but you don't need to do this and Jesus said, permit it to be so, John And he was our example in baptism in the Jordan River, as a matter of fact. I write out there. We're following in a tradition that was established long ago. It's not just a ritual purity which had to be done over and over.
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Everywhere we went throughout Israel, there were ritual baths, and it was something that had to be had to happen multiple times a day. The Essenes of Qumran, you know, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Those guys did ritual baths every single day at all the times because they constantly had to keep themselves clean. The baptism that we practice here is baptism by immersion and when Jesus came up out of the water, the spirit of God descended like a dove and lit upon him and a voice came from heaven saying, behold this, my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Peter actually mentions that in second Peter chapter one.
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He mentions, I was there. I heard the voice. I've been there. I didn't hear that voice right there. But I wanted to mention Dean's baptism this morning.
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I also wanted to mention that next week, Sadie Wakub and Reyna Wakub. The Wakub are moving. Oh, sadly but both of them wanted to be baptized here before they head out of the valley. So, they're being baptized. We're going to have a full tank next week too.
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If you have believed in Christ but have not yet been baptized, please, please consider a step of obedience and striving after godliness by listening to the still small voice. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch is reading the Isaiah scroll, and Philip comes running up beside him in the chariot, and he starts explaining who Jesus is from that passage. And they didn't put him under watch care for six months, and they didn't have him prove himself over a period of time. The eunuch looked and said, there's water. What's hindering me from being baptized?
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And Philip says, nothing. Let's do it. So there's a full tank right now. If you want to be baptized right now, come on up. But if you want a week to bring an extra set of clothes, we're going to have a full tank next week too, and I'll be baptizing.
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Or it'll be open for someone else to baptize you if you would like. I think that's the last I had, except for this. Eulily, I don't know if you know these two ladies. They're from Jamaica, and they came up this morning and we did kind of a closing blessing benediction over them too as they head back to Jamaica for the next couple months. They're coming back later in the summer but they've really become a part of the church here and they they just had a chance to express their thanks and I want to thank them too.
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They've made meals for Monday night and they've just been great. So, I think that's it. Is there anything else that I'm forgetting, Blake? Okay. Cleanse me is the is the closing one.
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Speaking of baptism, David's prayer, Psalm 51. Would you stand up? In Psalm one thirty nine too.
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Speaker 2Search me oh God and know my heart today me your savior and pride
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Speaker 1avail yourself to the Holy Spirit power on this last verse.
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Speaker 2Revival comes from
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Speaker 1Amen. Since the message was for Christians today, I'm going to use a little baptism benediction here. Colossians two twelve says, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him. You know, they didn't hold you down and keep you down, did they? They raised you back up out of that water to walk in newness of life.
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They also were raised up with him through faith and the working of God who raised Jesus from the dead. That same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us. Gotta let him. Colossians three one through three says this, therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep on seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and set your mind on the things above. Intently, setting your mind on those things that were listed today.
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Not on the things that are on the Earth for you, Christian, have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Would you all pray with me just a second? God, would you, lord, do that in our lives? We, lord, want to submit our will to you and we want to be effective and productive. Would you use us, lord, to bring other people into a knowledge of God and Jesus Christ through your divine power.
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We ask that you make so. Amen.
