HOW TO AVOID SATAN'S DEADLY ATTACKS--AS WE SEE THOSE DARK DAYS AHEAD

let's open the book of matthew as we look at peter's closing words of his life now as you return to matthew chapter 6 you say how can matthew 6 have anything to do with second peter 3. we already are struggling to know how second peter 3 has anything to do with revelation 6. well if you understand the the way that the bible is engineered it is incredible how what jesus taught peter as a young man in matthew 6 shows up as the fabric of his final words to the church in second peter 3 which are completely describing and framing revelation 6 onward the dissolving of the world in the judgment of god at the end of days so chapter 6 and we're going to start in verse 19 but jesus sat down and shared what i call the facts of earthly life now you know as children grow up you have these intervals where you sit them down you know and when they're first going to school you you go through you know run from the bad guys you know and then when they get a little older you tell the girls to run from the boys you know all those little things that we teach them you know and then when they get a little older you start explaining the the very critical facts that will shape their lives jesus did the same thing jesus shares the facts for earthly life with his disciples and with thousands of people who listened in and learned as jesus taught now what's fascinating is the chapters five six and seven we've covered at various points they contain the basics about salvation that's chapter seven we've talked about it so many times you know many will say unto me that day lord lord and he'll say i never knew you and we talked about true saving faith and what that means jesus explained the truths about prayer and we went through the seven elements the lord's prayer but right here jesus talks about what to do with the the most frequent topic jesus talked about which is our treasures he says that money shows where our heart is and our treasures reveal who our master is and and it's just a beautiful lesson well luke i mean uh matthew chapter 6 look at verse 19. and i'm just showing you this not this is not our passage we're going to get to that what i want you to hear is what peter heard now imagine peter's a young man a businessman at that has his own business he is working in the same industry as his dad and he's on his own and he's actually moved to the shores of the sea of galilee doing his work and he has recently followed jesus and he's listening to him and jesus said this verse 19 do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth jesus said and by the way this greek word is interesting faciliza means to stack it's like a thesaurus it's something you know a thesaurus stacks words on top of each other he says don't stack your stuff on earth for yourself why will moth and rust will destroy and thieves will break in and steal verse 20 here's the positive the the command but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither rosters were neither moth nor rust destroys where thieves do not break into steel so that's the first element then jesus enlarges on this he tells us about the magnetic attraction that follows where where our things are stacked verse 21 for where your treasure is your heart is going to be drawn to that place so he said make sure you're putting your treasures where you want your heart aimed and and drawn verse 22 then what happens is we start thinking about our heart causes our mind to to just keep working and working you know where our where our attraction is we think about it all the time he says watch out verse 22 the lamp of the body is in the is the eye if therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness by the way jesus didn't just insert that as phil in the context he's talking about a proper and an improper treasure receptacle a proper and an improper magnet for your heart and now he's saying it can make you good or bad full of light or darkness if you make a nice chart you can see the the truths that he's saying treasures in heaven your heart will be drawn that way and you'll be full of light treasures on earth your heart will be drawn that direction and you'll have darkness but now he caps it off look at verse 24 no one can serve two masters now if i was saying that in application you could go well you're being a little stiff we're not sure how did you come to that point this is not application this is jesus commanding you know what he said life is all about making a choice you can either choose this master or this master you can't go between the two you can't split your time you can't do one one day and one the other day he says you got to make a choice no one can serve two masters either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other and then he concludes you cannot serve god and what the new king james says is mammon i think it's curious that that they actually put that word directly into english ma moon is the is the greek word without translating it and so for centuries people have read about mammon you know what mammon means if you say that even in aramaic or in in today you say it in israel mammon speaks of your riches of your possessions and what the lord says is you can't be a servant to god and also be a servant to the amassing of treasures and riches they are mutually exclusive okay so jesus here remember peter's listening peter's out you know part of the disciples he's as close to jesus as he can get and peter's here is here hearing jesus telling them clearly that materialism or the craving after things mammon what riches can buy number one first enslaves our hearts you notice you lay up treasures on earth and and what happens is your heart is drawn that direction the first thing that materialism and treasures do is it enslaves our heart then jesus says in verse 22 and 23 it begins to captivate our minds i mean it seems like once you've decided that you're in it for as much as you can get then you start thinking of more ways to get and it starts to affect our minds and we are captivated with acquisition and with ways of multiplying and everything else and then finally it conquers our wills see first our heart gets drawn then our mind gets captivated and finally we're serving our riches and and that's the no one can serve two masters part so what what peter heard is either we lay up treasures in heaven that can never be lost or we clutter our life on earth with things and we lose our treasures in heaven and jesus said there's no middle ground you can't serve both you know what peter never forgot what he heard jesus say and so now turn back to second peter 3 because a lifetime has passed and peter is nearing the end of the line of his time on earth serving the lord and he's writing not again from a vacuum peter's heart he he could not forget christ on earth in fact he starts the book saying that that he was an eyewitness to the glory of christ that's how he starts first peter he says we are eyewitnesses of his glory and his mind is filled with what jesus had taught him he never forgot and he's going into in chapter three his final session with the growing churches he had poured his life into so obviously he had listened he did not spend his life as a fisherman instead he became a fisher of men and and he used those skills and he used everything he had learned in those early years of fishing and following christ to now go out and he became such an effective nurturer of the church of jesus christ and he's writing back to the churches that that he had been a part of their lives and they were growing but now they were scattered and the specific ones that he was ministering to were in the heart of the roman empire now um once a month i i do in in december and in january and tonight's another one i do what i call elements of biblical interpretation it's a sunday night explaining how you understand the bible how you interpret the bible and tonight we're going to do bible geography this is a key example if you saw where peter wrote these two you would see the the place that all tourists want to go because this was the heart of the roman empire it was the place where rome was at its zenith in in accomplishments in engineering and everything else and so these people that were living in the heart of the roman empire were facing both fiery trials we covered that last time literally fiery trials and alluring enticements now now think about you know i joke and i talk about you know how you know people spend two three hours watching sports how would you like to go to the olympics if they didn't wear any clothes at all that's how they did it in rome they wore nothing and that was an alluring enticement and and it wasn't just the sports the materialism the the theaters do you think they built those theaters just for tourists 2000 years ago 2000 years later to go to those people were into entertainment they were into all types of cultural things and these people were torn between the fiery trials that they were facing and the glittering allurements they were torn between being loyal to christ and facing painful persecutions or just floating along with the roman world and its endless pursuits of pleasures and possessions that was what was tearing them you say well can't you have both well remember the the best way to understand the bible and we'll see this on sunday night the first canon of textual interpretation is what did it mean to the people that first received it it doesn't matter what it means to me what did god mean when he wrote them well the people that got this book believed that jesus christ called them to have their citizenship in heaven and that they were supposed to live godly righteous lives so do you know why nero began to kill christians do you know what he put rome was very legal very following jurisprudence they followed legal practices if the emperor was going to kill someone he had to file a charge against them to burn them at the stake like we talked about last time what charge did he file against him the first charge we find on the law books of the roman empire against biblical christians is they were haters of humanity that's what they were called that's what the roman government said and it said they are haters of humanity because they will not come to the arenas they will not come to the coliseums they will not come to the theaters they have withdrawn from the the festivals that the roman empire had with all the false worship of false gods with all the decadence with all the nudity with all the violence with all the gratuitous bloodshed the christians said this does not please god and they stepped away now that's totally contrary to 21st century thinking of christians you know what i go to church conferences all the time you know what i hear at church conferences you got to do everything you can to make people feel comfortable we don't want any unbeliever that's called a seeker-friendly church and we got to have a church where they do not feel out of place and they feel comfortable in a home and don't you say anything they'll jar them didn't subscribe to that in the first century in fact believers didn't feel unbelievers even would ever even want to come to their services because they were so not of this world and so there they were torn with facing the persecution of following christ or just floating along with the world and peter's congregation in central asia roman province of asia turkey today sounds eerily like 21st century christianity it's are you floating or are you fighting against the flesh are you floating along with the world and with the allurements and with the attractions and with the materialism and with the whole culture or are you fighting against your flesh and saying that doesn't please god and i can't go any longer that direction we either stop floating along with the crowd that lives for the weekend sports that lives for the weekend parties that lives for the weekend fun and begin to live every day as sacred for christ and suffer that's one choice or we just float along with the world as believers and enjoy as much as we can the best of both worlds that's where a lot of christians are today and what they haven't read is matthew 6 24 you can't do both either you serve pleasures the material world the endless acquisition of more the endless dissatisfaction wanting newer and better and brighter and bigger or you don't and you can't blend them you serve one or the other the question this morning is are you floating along in the river of materialism or are you fighting against its control of your heart for your treasures or will your heart be of your mind are you gonna be full of light or darkness of your will who are you serving that's the question and it's the proof of who we really serve we try and stay focused on the lord especially on sundays but so much of our life is consumed with with the things and activities and pursuits that are tied to materialism that is very hard to focus on god we find and jesus said it is it's hard and peter agreed with him godly living is a struggle in fact paul before peter paul wrote the christian life is an agonizing there's a nice greek word we understand it's agonizing it's like wrestling it's like boxing it's fighting against our flesh not against other people we're not called to fight people we're called to fight the traitor that lives within us our flesh well godly living is a struggle and we can see that very little has changed from peter's day to hours and god's word speaks so clearly into our lives as it did theirs what's amazing is the issues they were dealing with 20 centuries ago are the same issues we're dealing with today that's the supercultural nature the timelessness of the bible so what were peter's lessons to them and what therefore would peter's lessons be to us by the power of god's inspired word well peter told them and targets them and us secondarily with a reminder that where they lived and how they traveled and what they collected around in amassed around themselves and all the gadgets that kept them occupied and all the trophies of life and all the things they guarded and everything they trusted in for the future all of those things if they are not surrendered and pleasing to god are going to be torn from our hands and burned up at the judgment seat of christ you see none of those things are in and of themselves bad or wrong it's usually the things that are bad that clutter our lives and that's what peter's telling him and so in second peter chapter three and and look in your bibles at verse 11 that's where we're gonna read this morning peter teaches us how to live for things in life that god doesn't have to burn up and that we won't lose forever and and what is happening as we read this is the same thing that we saw in revelation two and three the lord said as his word is being presented that we who have ears to hear should hear what his word says to us as his children did you know the lord has something in this passage and in the passages we're going to look at this morning that he wants to not just be another sermon you can chalk off that you heard but that there's a jolt and you say wait if that's what god wants i can't serve two masters i need to do this that's what he wants us to hear from his word second peter chapter three and we're going to read verses 11 through 13 so let's stand together and you follow along and then i'll read and pray and then we'll be buzzing through what peter had to say verse 11. second peter three therefore and that's everything we've been covering so far since all these things will be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of god because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells let's bow forward of prayer father i pray that we your people would be longing for the day of god to hasten for the kingdom of this world to be the kingdoms of our god and of his christ and that you would reign forever and ever and that you would put an end to this rebellion that you would put an end to this this longing that your creatures have to serve what you have created rather than you the creator and that's the heart of materialism it's abandoning the creator for the creation any part of it and longing and loving and serving it instead of you as creator and master may we hear what you have to say to us your church and may we not be merely hearers but by your grace doers in the name of jesus we pray amen you may be seated as you're seated what peter now don't lose where we were peter heard all this sitting at the feet of jesus on that gentle grassy slope going down to the sea of galilee i'll show you that tonight the geographic place remember everything happened somewhere and all this stuff happened somewhere that's one of the blessings of biblical geography but peter was sitting there and he heard all this and and he lived thinking about it and now as he's thinking of the very last thing he's going to get to say have you ever thought of your last words what you're going to say i mean you know if if you're down to that last thing you know and and they tell you have three months and then three weeks and then three days and then it's the day you know and you're everyone's around you ever thought about what you're going to say that's what peter was thinking about i mean he's headed to death he was hunted by the roman emperor he was the last public big known follower that was loose and they were after him so he's sitting down in this passage and peter knew in advance that everything around him was going to get dissolved like trash in the incinerator and because he knew that he says i want you guys if you know that what are you going to focus on are you going to focus on when jesus comes to get you he's going to look at you and say uh sorry you can't you know it reminds me every time i get on a plane the strange things people try and take on airplanes and those you know smiling stewardesses stand like this and they go no that won't fit on the plane and the people will try you know they carry it down the aisle they go boom and the stewardess will sit there and go we have to tag it it can't go with you it has to go underneath did you know that's what jesus is saying you you can't come in with all that stuff he doesn't put it underneath he just burns it and so peter said what should you focus on in other words two thousand years ago peter asked these believers a simple question i think it's a good one for us what on earth are you living for if everything on earth we're going to present to jesus christ ultimately at the judgment seat of christ what on earth are you living for are you living for what he's going to reject i mean does it does it sound wise to you to just it's like going through walmart and throwing everything into your basket that you know that you shouldn't buy and especially if if someone else is paying for it they've already told you i'm not going to pay for any of that why do you put it in the basket that's what peter's saying he says don't don't do that what are you living for peter heard jesus warn him about materialism and he never forgot it he said the craving after things that riches can buy first enslaves our heart then it takes captive our mind then it will conquer our wills see many people are i was just reading a biography of john d rockefeller and you know what it says you know he was the first billionaire and he was earning a million dollars a week in 1910 i mean he was just very well off and yet he was sickly he was anxious he couldn't sleep he was living on crackers and milk until finally someone talked to him he was a baptist by the way and uh someone said to him doesn't your baptist bible say anything about you know giving away and getting 100 fold and rockefeller's life direction changed and he started being philanthropic and giving and and see peter in a spiritual sense that was just in a you know an elementary way you know he was just trying to be nice to people but but peter's saying for god's sake what do you what are you spending your lives for jesus said and peter heard it either we lay up treasures in heaven that can never be lost or we clutter our life on earth with things that will cause us to lose our treasures in heaven god says there's no middle ground you can't have two masters if you spend your life serving and honoring and filling your life with what does not please the lord you don't have room you can't carry both loads through life jesus said either you carry my load my burden is easy my my load is light or you go through life not pleasing me and feeling the resistance that comes and peter says i don't want that so peter is asking them and by application us should we spend our lives collecting and guarding and seeking out and holding on to trash that will only be taken away from us by god and burned or should we be seeking eternal treasures that last that will stay with us forever and that we can give back to jesus as our adoring everlasting worship you know paul talked about that in first thessalonians 2 19 and 20 you know what he says when he was writing back to the thessalonians that he had led to the lord that he had nurtured in the lord that he had taught and and and been a part of their lives in discipleship he says you are my hope and joy and crown of rejoicing at the coming of the lord what he's saying is when jesus comes and when he sees what's in my basket you're there i mean is there anybody in your basket that you have pointed to christ that you have nurtured that you have discipled that you have prayed for you know people have all these computerized alerts for stuff they want to buy do you have a prayer alert for people that you want to present the gospel to i mean since jesus left us here to make disciples shouldn't you have a measurable amount of disciples in your past if that's what he left you to do and in your present plans and in your future plans disciple making being a part of the process peter says that's what i want it all seems quite clear-cut peter said doesn't it to us and that's why he wrote down what i call peter's lessons on the end of the world materialism contentment and the uncluttered life and basically if you look at second peter chapter 3 peter lays out for the saints in century one a beautiful flow for them to think about and i think when you see it it really makes you think it was inspired by god who jealously wants all of our attention all of our affections and most of all he wants our cravings did you know the word lust epithumia the word lust thumas is desire epi means strong it means craving did you know that lust is the negative way of saying that word and desiring god is a positive way of saying it's the same word we are to have as longing a craving for god as we have for the things the pleasures of this world he says you've got a picture you can't desire them both you got to pick one or the other so peter passionately pens his final words that's what second peter 3 are and gives us five lessons and as i read them to you you'll note that each one revolves around a warning about materialism peter was really into what he heard at the beginning he got it right from jesus he couldn't forget it jesus said you can't have two masters you can't lay up treasures in both places and peter says i got it number one and this is when we met in the fellowship center we looked at the first nine verses materialism blurs our purpose in life as disciples because god left us here to live redemptively the whole purpose of peter writing was that ninth verse it says god is not willing and should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth we're supposed to be living redemptively we are here to either aid or actually bring people to the knowledge of the truth either we're supporting it by prayer by participating at any level we can or we're actually doing it but we know why we're here we're redemptive we look at people not as potential clients not as potential friends and people that will adore us but as people that need redemption and that's we just all of a sudden life changes i remember back let's see how old was i it was in the 60s um that someone invited me to to grand rapids well i said it's not quite grand rapids just a little outside of grand rapids they said there's two men we want you to meet and and i remember going there and i met you know rich devos and javen edel and you know charlie marsh and bernice kraut or i forget all their names now they were all the megas of this soap company and what i learned is they said that everyone you look at you should think about them as whether where they would fit in your circles you know all the circles that they taught you to draw and i thought about that and by the way i did it and it was fun i made a lot of money until one day i realized that i was going through life and looking at people and thinking let's see if i tell about amway and they don't like it i wonder if i can tell them about the lord but if i tell them about the lord and they don't like it i can't tell them about amway because they already don't like me you know and so i was going like this and thinking should i talk to him about the lord first or the business first or the business verse to the lord first and i thought wait a minute we're not supposed to be having this conversation so i turned in my little case you know and and it reminded me that materialism blurs our purpose in life as christ disciples we're here to live redemptively secondly and this is where we are right now materialism clouds our minds with the idolatry of coveting and what we're supposed to do is keep alert to any place that that shows up anytime we crave stuff more than god and stuff can be media and entertainment and recreation and it can be we can make anything into an idol and an idol is anything that displaces god from being most important our biggest longing anything that displaces that is an idol and materialism living for anything other than that which glorifies god and lasts forever clouds our minds by the idolatry of covetousness and we're to keep alert to that thirdly peter says this starting in verse 12 materialism clutters our lives with discontent we should build fireproof uh when bonnie and i lived out in california i always remember the the raging grass fires that would come sweeping down the hills you know hollywood hills and the you know san gabriel mountains and verdugo hills and all the other hills and it would get so dry and and all of a sudden those fires would come and what happened is that when the pine trees would get engulfed they would just explode and sparks would fly and they would land on these cedar shake roofed houses and if you don't know what cedar shakes are it's like kindling wood actually it should be called kindling wood roofing and it was so dry and so old and so ready that all it took as a spark and that 25 000 roof would burst into flame and burn the million dollar house and so what the government tried to do is they tried to get people to rebuild with fire proof orange terracotta you know tiles and you know you can put a spark on that and it can sit there three months and it'll just sit there and it doesn't burn and that's what peter's saying build with fire proof materials materialism clutters our lives with discontent you know what the writer of ecclesiastes said we're going to study in a couple weeks the more you have the more you want the more you have the more people want to take it from you the more you have the more you worry about it and there's something about materialism breeds within us discontent and dissatisfaction we want more and more and so it clutters our lives and we should build fireproof and then fourthly materialism blinds our eyes with earthly treasures and the solution to that is look up in verses 14 15 and 16 and 17 peter is paralleling what jesus said to the church in laodicea do you remember he said to them you are rich you're increased with goods you have need of nothing and you don't know that you're poor and blind and miserable and naked blind materialism blinds our eyes with earthly treasures you have a 2 000 high def investment hanging on your wall you want to watch it it's very blinding i mean you got to get your money out of it right you buy you know i mean whatever you want to use it and materialism blinds us and what is blinding the songwriter put it helen lemmel wrote a poem turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim you could rewrite her poem turn your eyes upon stuff look full in the wonderful stuff and the things of christ his word his fellowship his people his ministry your calling as a disciple will grow strangely dim in the glow of this stuff see that's a choice we make and finally materialism corrodes our wills because we're trying to serve two masters and the solution to that is obey jesus and there was never a more relevant message for any group of people than those at the heart of the roman empire and peter's day and by the way for us in the heart of american materialism today never a more relevant message we'll look at verse 10 and verse 11. i just want to unpack a few truths from this beware of materialism clouding your minds with the idolatry of coveting we are supposed to keep alert to any blinding that that is happening this clouding of our minds that idolatry brings and so what he says in verse 10 the day of the lord will come like a thief in the night the heavens will pass away the elements will melt both the earth and and all the works will be burned up therefore since all these things will be dissolved look at the choices were to pursue what peter does all that run up in verses 10 all the way through most of verse 11 is just it's just giving you a location a a of an arena that we're to live in he said this is how you're supposed to live look at the end what we're to pursue in life at the end of verse 11. it's a pair of words that he uses he says in holy conduct and godliness now those two words if you were i can still remember going to greek class used to be so scary i had to take greek for five years five years of my life i studied greek and to pass my comprehensive to show you how much i learned i mean i really worked on it but i'm not greek um i wasn't born there so i never really but i remember for my final they would just they would place a greek testament in front of us and the bible faculty would be there and they would just turn to a page and you had to pick it up and read it to them and i went to the chairman of the bible and i says i've worked really hard for five years i said i i can't i don't think i'll do that he says what would it help you if i tell what book he says because i'm the one opening and i'll tell you what book i'm turning to he says then you can concentrate i said okay and he said hebrews i went right home i counted there were 303 verses that night i started 20 a day i memorized the whole book i walked in for my greek comprehensive scared to death and with a twinkle in his eye he opened the greek testament and and i passed but at the end of the the time he looked at me he says your greek has a definite elizabethan accent i memorized it in king james uh so i i learned but you know what what peter said is that we should live in holiness in in this godliness and this holy conduct now in greek if you looked at that simply you'd see they're both plural so basically the two words at the end of verse 11 are not translatable in english because we don't say in all manner of holy conducts and godlinesses that doesn't make sense to us godliness but not godlinesses and holy conduct not holy conducts but you know what in greek why you put the plural on when you do a pair of words that are normally singular that are that are describing actions and attitudes and you put them in the plural form it's their way of saying spread it all around kind of like did you ever put on the suntan lotion and your mom says now don't leave blotches you know it'll be red marks you know spread it around you know what the lord says don't leave any uncovered areas of your life look at the end of verse 11 spread holy conduct and godliness over every part the sense is that holy conduct is the action that's how i live my life godliness is the attitude it's the central way of reverence in my life and both holy conduct and godly reverence should cover everything i do he says if you know that everything's going to be destroyed you reverence the one that told you that and you pursue what is holy conduct in his sight and that's basically what peter said holy conduct is to rule my behavior godliness is to rule my heart and that means as it overflows it spreads to cover everything in my life you say okay what does that mean well what it means is we all are designed to crave something now look at at first peter chapter one remember this is an integrated book peter wrote both of them he's communicating with the same crowd and and he knows that they have already had his first book read over and over again in the congregation and so we need to kind of get up to speed with what they knew so we understand what he's saying in his last words and look at chapter 1 verse 13 we are all designed to crave and peter already reminded them of that in their first letter he says you were born with a hard-wired desire for things in fact later the apostle john in 1st john 2 calls it the lust of the eyes and the flesh we long for things we crave them like the israelites craved in the wilderness we crave for things that displeases the god who ask us to crave him did you catch that we crave for things to the displeasure of the god who ask us to crave him so look at look at verse 13. therefore gird up the lines of your mind be sober wait a minute any of you were here back when we were in titus that's the only characteristic that is for every godly man godly woman older and younger in the church all four groups in the curriculum of titus 2 are told to be sober that idea is to not let anything get us under its control so what he's saying is it the spiritual realm is in your mind gird up the loins of your mind all spiritual life and all desires and cravings start in the mind and he says be sober don't let anything get the control on you and rest your hope fully on the grace that's to be brought to you at the revelation jesus christ he says he says you can overcome this way that you were hardwired verse 14 as obedient children don't conform yourselves to the former lusts we were born possessive we were born self-centered we were born covetous to the point of idolatry in our greed for me and my in fact another passage we're going to look at in the future is the rich fool this night you know your life will be required of you and and he was saying eat drink and be merry did you know it's the most self-centered parable christ ever told it's all i and me and my and i will build in my house and my treasures and what jesus was showing is that that's how apart from his grace we are wired so he says don't look at verse 14. don't conform yourselves to those materialistic lust in your ignorance but as he who called you is holy be holy in all your conduct spread that holy conduct and godliness over all parts of your life just that's why it's in the plural in chapter 3. just spread it all over and he says verse 16 why should we do this because it is written be holy for i am holy and if you call in the father who without partiality judges wait a minute father judges what are those two words doing together there is no condemnation to those in christ what is the father judging us for the judgment seat of christ it's what you have in your basket that's the judgment he's talking about we are going to be judged we're going to be judged over whether what we did is going to cause us to suffer loss first corinthians 3 13 to 15 or we're going to get eternal gain from it so what he's saying is look at this if you call on the father who without partiality is going to judge what's in your cart and basket according to your work conduct yourselves through the time of your stay here in fear what are we fearing we don't want to displease him he's already told us what not to put in the cart so every time we we reject ignore or neglect what he's told us he doesn't want in our cart it displeases him and so we live our time here in reverential awe we don't want to displease him what what peter is saying is that we need to crave god and not things he he had this reverential aw in life he said god was there for i eat or drink whatever i do i want to do it your glory as paul put it because i want to crave you well basically we are not to deny the urge for living just to satisfy the the the ways of the world that's causing us to float along rather were to say i am not here living to eat i'm not here living to work i work in order to live after my master's desires and commands now keep going to chapter two by the way peter very much repeats himself look at first peter 2 verses 1 11. peter said the way we know we're headed in the right way following the right path is when we feel like aliens on the earth and strangers to the system and if you look at first peter 2 11 this is what he says beloved i beg you as sojourners and pilgrims do you see why the people were called haters of humanity in the first century they believed him they said we're just pilgrims and strangers on earth we're this is this world is not our home we're just passing through and we're not going to go to those places we're not going to attend those events we're not going to witness those scenes that dishonor our god and so i beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from the flush of your flesh that war against your soul peter could still hear jesus say you can't serve two masters and he says i am not going to war against my soul i was bought at a price i want to glorify him he is my master. he says abstain from those things that war against your soul and look at verse 12 have your conduct honorable among the gentiles that when they speak against you as evildoers what were they saying you you hate our our events you hate our festivals you hate our activities you hate our entertainment and they say we do because we love our god and look what he says will happen have your conduct verse 12 honorable among the gentiles that when they speak against you as evildoers they may by your good works which they observe glorify god in the day of visitation he says you know what they're going to see that you have a life that they don't have and god is going to visit them with conviction well how do we how do we respond to what god prompted peter to write basically this resisting idols pleases god and what he says in verse 10 of first peter three turn onward to the end to second i mean ii peter three look at verse 10 how do we resist idols and please god the answer god wants from us is in verse 10 by living for what lasts live for what won't burn up live for what you can never lose verse 11 by living for what pleases him john put it this way i don't want to be ashamed that you're coming well what exactly is peter talking about that this pleases god and i want to close with this we have exactly four minutes turn back to first john chapter two last time you have to turn first john 2 it's to the right over one page in my bible look at verses 15 to 17 and this is what sums up what peter was saying about this beware of these lusts you were born with john said this first john 2 15 do not love the world or the things that are in the world if anyone if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him to hear that mutually exclusive you can't love one you can either hold to one or the other john by the way was sitting there too john heard jesus say this and he repeats it all the way through his life if anyone loves the world serves mammon lives for the cravings of what riches can buy the love of the father is not in him john said verse 16. now look at this for all that is in the world and he identifies three ways that lust attacks us number one the lust of the flesh that's cravings of the body chasing pleasures our bodies crave for things and drive us to these pleasures and we pursue them that's called the lust of flesh number two lust of the eyes it's the lusting of the eyes chasing stuff it's the finer things some people base have baser desires just cravings of their body others have refined desires it's the craving of their eyes it's nice fine stuff he said watch out for the lust of the eyes chasing stuff and the pride of life that's the boasting of our mouth chasing status you know what he says chasing pleasure chasing stuff and chasing status look at the end of verse 16 is not of the father but is of the world and verse 17 the world is passing away and all those lusts of it all the the the pleasure chasing stuff chasing and status chasing is passing away but look at the end but he who does the will of god abides forever just like lot's wife when we long for what god has already said he's going to destroy we displease god you know how john ends first john verse 21 of chapter five says keep yourself from idols don't let anything takes god's place in your life which makes it an idol so how do we i mean now we heard the message how do you respond to something like that i mean what's a proper response if you were sitting on that meadow by the sea of galilee and you heard jesus say stack your treasures in heaven don't stack them on earth you can't serve two masters serve me you just sit there and smile and look at him and go wow boy he's handsome he's got pretty eyes you know i mean what do you do when you hear stuff like that well jesus said you respond it's not he who hears but those that do so to aid us that's what this book is if you grab your green book look at number 366 and i want you to read something with me because someone wrote a wonderful poem after meditating on this and his name was judson w van de venter i think he was from holland or around here somewhere but 366 is his response okay and once you find it let's all stand up we're going to read out loud and then we're going to try first service i got them started an octave low but i thought it was great uh it's where i sing but uh we'll try and sing but let's read the first stance and think about this i know you're just reading it but it can also be your response to god especially when you get to that refrain you can actually make that an offering to god but let's just read stanza one all to jesus i surrender all to him i freely give i will ever love and trust him in his presence daily live i surrender all i surrender all all to thee my blessed savior i surrender all now verse 2 talks about how we renew this every time we have our devotions you know what devotions is not reading something real quick checking off your reddit it's doing this it's saying you follow along all to jesus i surrender humbly at his feet i bow that's what we do every time we engage with the lord in our time our quiet time we're coming at to him through his word and before him we bow with our hearts and we say worldly pleasures all forsaken take me jesus take me now i want to renew that you're the only master i have and and let's say the refrain again i surrender all i surrender all all to thee my blessed savior i surrender all okay let's try and sing the third stanza let's bow forward of prayer father in heaven thank you for judson van de venter who captures what all of us want to say to you we really do love you and your love constrains us to want to respond and your word tells us what response you want so it's pretty clear we don't want two masters we confess we're often torn but today at the first of this week at the start at the beginning today begins this week we begin it with you we seek you first and we say you're our only master and we want to follow you and i pray that you would start leading us to divest ourselves of the clutter of material things that cloud us from doing what you left us here to do from really knowing you and i pray that those idols would not long be tolerated in our lives by your grace we pray and for your glory we ask and all of god's people said amen god bless you shugo you

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Keywords: Bible, God, Jesus, Christian, teaching, biblical, teach, sermon, trinity, church, lesson, traditional, truth, true, divine, theology, freedom, guilt, testament, pure, interpret, spirit, holy, John, Barnett, christ, father, heaven, hell, doctrine, doctrinal, sinful, forgive, forgiveness, history, teachings, chapters, verses, discover, the book, ministries, dtbm, Dr. Barnett, controversial, repent, helpful, sin, the, book, dr, john, doctor, barnett, training, videos, series, resources, savior, god, jesus, holy land, pilgrimage, spiritual renewal

Id: mqW07wkKDt4

Length: 52min 35sec (3155 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021