The Rick & Bubba Bible Study Live - Dec. 2, 2020

hey welcome into the wednesday bible study uh this week uh these times of covet here we are again and i'm in quarantine uh you know the last time i was in quarantine we did the wednesday bible study outside in the beautiful weather but unfortunately uh where i'm doing it from now is is the great state of alabama and outside right now the high is about uh 39 uh 40 somewhere in that range so not going to be sitting outside today even though i could bundle up maybe put on some camo would be great but uh gonna do it here from the house again today uh uh we we we're still waiting on tests to come back on whether we have coveted or not my oldest son has it he came home from thanksgiving we got exposed so that's kind of what we're doing uh but let's get to the more important topic of today and that is we are about to wrap up uh our study of first and second peter we wrap up second peter today uh so if you have your bible or something with your bible on it uh let's go to ii peter uh we started in chapter 3 last week we'll finish from verse 14 to the end of the book uh in this uh this wednesday edition of of second peter be our six i think number six session uh of this great book and and we'll talk about that uh you know and what we're going to do here to wrap up and then we'll talk about what's going to be next we'll start a new series uh next week lord willing and we're going to jump into a great book uh by by j.i packer and that is the book knowing god it was it was released uh many years ago uh and it takes on the topic of you know you can know god as far as you know about god without ever really knowing god and and so we'll jump into this uh this book beginning in our next study lord willing as i said next wednesday uh so let's uh let's uh look at a couple of things you need to know uh coming up in 2021 if you go to burgessministries.com burgess burgessministries.com go there you can see all the different man church services or conferences we have coming up in 2021 january 9th charleston uh missouri will be there uh it's it's what we call a man church one day uh which means that uh that we'll go there and spend half the day together rich wingo will be there speaking i'll be speaking andy blanks will be part of a panel uh answering some of your questions and we'll have praise and worship we'll have you in saturday morning have you out by early afternoon uh we also have a full weekend uh conference coming up on the uh february the 19th and the 20th our pursuit conference we started that last year when we kicked off themanchurch.com uh we was our first ever conference this will be our second one and we'll introduce you to the next 40-week curriculum we already have our 40-week curriculum called the pursuit we we have 101 churches that are at some stage of doing that some that are getting toward the end of it we'll offer a new 40-week curriculum uh and we'll launch that in february at the pursuit conference and the next one will be real men we'll take eight men of the bible do 40 weeks on these eight men and all the things you see the good the bad and how powerful god is and the life of ordinary men so we'll talk about that coming up uh in 2021 so go to burgess ministries.com look at those upcoming events if you need to get tickets for those grab them if they're not ticketed then we'll just see you there so let's open up in a word of prayer don't forget about the man church.com the final installment of the how to be a man 40 day devotional trilogy uh we've done the pursuit of christ-centered masculinity we've done real men of the bible and our third one is discipleship what is it you spend 40 days learning about what it looks like to be a disciple what is discipleship if you would like to pre-order uh this next devotional it's coming out in january we'll ship them in january but if you pre-order from how to be a man presale.com how to be a man presale.com if you place an order there i will autograph the copies when they come to the men on your christmas list or if you want to order it for yourself and you'll go ahead and get a card that you can print out and make a gift for christmas and then the book will come to them autographed in january all right so let's open up a word of prayer lord thank you for today we do pray for our country we pray for our world uh we pray for all those that that are hurting today and i pray lord that as as we celebrate this most wonderful time of year when you came to us because we could not come to you may today we open up your word in a special way to hear from you clearly and then apply it to our lives in the name of jesus we pray amen all right so as i mentioned here we are in second peter chapter three starting in verse 14. now what peter's going to do to wrap up uh uh ii peter his second letter and his final letter we don't hear from peter anymore after this uh he's going to exhort uh us one more time uh as he wraps up to be sure that we get what he wants us to know uh which is incredible i mean exhortation is is what scripture says about itself what it's good for this has become not so popular especially in the western church how dare anyone and you know exhort me with the word of god challenge me you know it was a perfect example i got an email from someone i guess it was yesterday we we had done something on the rick and bubba show that this particular person didn't like because we had said some negative things about a person and uh and they put it in the email the the worn out thing that we've talked about in this bible study which isn't true at all and the person said well i was taught as a christian not to judge anyone um and then i and i admit it was it was a little bit of a smart remark and i and i own that but i i let this person know that i was i was doing this on purpose to make a bigger point and my response was but aren't you judging us right now uh you just passed judgment on our behavior while saying that you were taught as a christian by the way that's incorrect if somebody's taught you that not to judge no the bible says don't judge incorrectly it doesn't say not to judge it just says be sure you don't judge as a hypocrite be sure that you've assessed your own life before you bring up a biblical truth about someone else's behavior so i and then i went ahead to explain i said i say that because really you have every right to look at our behavior especially for those of us that claim to be christians and if you think we're not behaving correctly you have the right to point that out and as long as you're pointing it out biblically correct you're not in sin to do so the bible does not say do not judge it this says when you judge be sure you're judging correctly and uh and know that uh the same standard uh that uh this person that you may be making a note about the same standard they're being held to is the same standard you're being held to so i have found that people who speak into my life uh and even if it's extra exhortation uh it's actually quite beneficial to me if i'll drop my attitude and listen so this is what peter wants us to to know he's gonna give us a word of advice and that word of advice to start out in verse 14 is for us to behave because remember what we talked about last week and i've had a lot of people that have texted me or emailed me and said wow uh last week peter really what a message from peter um and and that is that he's reminding us that this this earth is going to be refined by fire uh he's letting us know that the heavens and the earth that they're going to burn and in light of all this we probably should live lives uh that are godly and holy uh and so he's coming back saying since i've already told you that therefore since i've already made this point look what he says in 14 therefore beloved since you are waiting for these meaning what he just mentioned since you're waiting on the return of the lord you're waiting for the earth to be uh refined by fire since since you know that's coming since you're waiting for these be diligent and be found by him talking about god himself uh without spot or blemish and at peace so so peter is getting ready to to wrap up he knows that his earthly death he's going to be martyred he knows this is coming this is his final letter to us uh the first one told us that silas uh was writing this as he uh you know dictated it don't know if that's the case in second peter he doesn't make that point uh but we can assume maybe but but anyway the bottom line is this is his last word that he's gonna give to the saints that he's gonna be giving to the church remember the first letter from peter was be careful for for the persecution from outside the church nero those that are that are coming after the church this letter is be careful of false teachers and false prophets that rise up from within the church so he says that we should be diligent now now the greek word that is used here that that we're translating and i'm using the english standard version uh diligent is what my bible says this is the greek word that means to hasten to do something diligent this is important this is not something you get to later uh this is something that you're devoted to now uh you you are to exhort yourself to be diligent to assess remember what paul said uh you know to be sure that we look at ourselves to see if what we claim to believe there's evidence of this that we're we have some integrity and so he says this is not the attitude of wait and see what happens you know when peter is talking about us to be diligent this is not kind of a haphazard hey hey you might want to think about that at some point i mean i wouldn't make it a big deal today one of the emails that i got last week from somebody who's watching uh this bible study or listening to it was they said the word that last week's study spoke to them was that they acknowledged that they had fallen victim to knowing they needed to make changes in their life but they they fell in that category of but just not today well that is not what peter is saying he's saying you be diligent about this knowing what's coming you know we could say two things knowing that my earthly death could happen any day are knowing that christ could return and knowing that you know that the sin is going to be eradicated from this earth and all that are they're not reconciled back to a holy god any who are not redeemed uh as sin is being removed then then those people and hopefully that would not be you and it wouldn't be me but if you're not redeemed it would be you that those people will be removed from god's presence they will be done away with they'll go the way of of the fallen creation so he says knowing this you be diligent and then you want to be found you know it goes back to you know when christ would do the parables about the return of the master and and you never know the day the master is going to return and and be sure that you're found doing his business uh don't be caught on the day that uh the master shows up that you haven't been doing the work so here's peter saying this he said be diligent meaning you need to to act on this be found by him talking about god christ when he returns without spot or blemish so to be found without spot or blemish this means to be found free from anything that defiles god therefore since the end is coming either by your earthly death or the return of christ be diligent to be found by him when he returns or you stand before him if your earthly death takes place that when you stand there you are found without blemish and without spot now how does that happen how is a person perfect well i'll tell you how they're perfect is they're under the authority of christ they have been reconciled to a holy god through redemption provided by christ so be sure you're found in christ you be diligent about that you know working out your salvation pursuing christ i had a conversation with a man yesterday and he was saying that he did not have a faith in christ and some of his children were asking questions that he didn't know the answers to and i was honored that he trusted me to help him with that and he said you know i just i'm not i haven't made this decision in my life and then i asked him a question i asked him for permission first to be respectful i said uh if you think this this question is um unreasonable or over the line then then i'll take it back and he said no i give you permission to ask me whatever you want to and i said have you ever pursued christ you say that you're kind of kicking the tires on this but can you honestly say that you have ever sought christ like you put energy into finding out everything you could possibly ever want to know about jesus and then deciding whether you want to reject him or not have you even taken that step you know what he said i never have and i knew that was going to be the answer because you know it's one thing to say that i have exhausted the effort to pursue christ and i find that i don't believe it or i may believe it and just reject him but most people that aren't sure whether they'll be found without spot or blemish when god returns is if they were honest they've never really put any time in it they they haven't even begun you can't ask a question or answer a question that's never been asked so have you have you pursued christ have you looked into it and so had a good conversation about that with this man yesterday so when he says to be blameless and it and look at this word it says and be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace now i know a lot of times somebody will see this and they'll be like oh well he's talking about you need to be at peace with with people well scripture says that we should be at peace with people as much as it depends on us but sometimes you can't be at peace with people because they're going to demand something of us that only god can have you know you say i want to be at peace with everybody well what if they tell you that they're not going to be at peace with you unless you compromise god i mean we see nebuchadnezzar talking to shadrach meshach and abednego and they desired to be at peace with nebuchadnezzar but when he said either bow to my idol or i'm going to throw you in the furnace well then it's difficult to be at peace with him unless you want to compromise god which they wouldn't do so they weren't at peace with nebuchadnezzar and they were thrown into the fire so that's not what peter's talking about here what peter is talking about is he says just what i'm what i just finished telling you about he's saying be sure you're found at peace with god uh you know it's you know and man as best you can in his side now that's the key look what he says therefore beloved since you are waiting for these talking about the end of the world be diligent to be found by him so so it's god's standard be at peace with his standard so not only do we need to be without spot or blemish and at peace with with him that that that's pretty obvious but that would also include the way we treat other people does he say that the way that you you and i are behaving toward other people is that also his standard because some people say well i'm going to be at peace with other people no matter the cost no so if god came back and found shadrach meshach and abednego at peace with nebuchadnezzar but they were at peace with nebuchadnezzar because they bowed to the idol would that be the standard that god was looking for no so it all goes back to everything my relationship with him which requires redemption in jesus and my relationship with other people all must be peter says be found that you're living at his standard many he's never compromised so so then we go on to 15-16 peter says and count the patience of the lord as salvation just as our beloved brother paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom wisdom given to him now this is get this gets really interesting when i was studying that this week that now here's peter referencing paul in his letter so he's saying consider the long suffering that that they were going through because he's talking remember to the christians in the days of nero he says consider the long-suffering to be due to the patience of god and to allow maximum opportunity for salvation if god had no patience the human race has no chance no chance at all to to to not die forever they cannot escape death eternal death without god's patience and and so you god is going to give us maximum opportunity to be redeemed either before our earthly death or before you know the return of christ and he says remember this so what you want to do is count the patience of our lord as salvation meaning that because of god's salvation there are people that have are yet to repent and what what what peter is saying is don't think that god's on some timeline that's unreasonable you may be ready to go i mean hello 2020 have any of you followers of jesus out there had times during this year you said let's just go some of you are not looking forward to what's ahead it may not get better it may get worse and so the easiest thing to say is i'm kind of ready to be in the presence of the lord i'm ready for the lord's return and i get that i completely get that i've been there i remember when our family went through the earthly death of our youngest son you know sherry and i looked at that looked at our each other on many a day and said man i just i'm just ready to go home i mean this is a this is an awful place uh when babies die in in places like this man i'm just ready to go i remember our youngest son here on earth with us the the second youngest of all our children um and uh i remember we were on a flight to to israel and i think i've told you this before on the one year anniversary of a broner's death that's my youngest son's name his earthly death and sherry thought that our youngest son was afraid of the flight saying what if the plane crashes and my wife says well i don't think the plane's gonna crash baby we're gonna get to israel and we're gonna get back to which you know the the seven-year-old said but it might meaning he didn't really mind if his whole family since we're all on the same plane together all were to end our lives together and all be where jesus and broner are located so so yeah i understand getting tired of of the process but what peter is telling us and he says and don't forget paul reminded us of this and we're going to unpack the peter and paul relationship here in a minute it's really cool but um i've had those days but i realize and you probably do too that there are people in my life right now that i have influence over and at least i know and i have conversations with that if jesus christ returned today they would go to hell they would and uh this takes us to the part about we need to have the same patience that the lord has with us with other people and and and i want to give you a word of encouragement today and i want you to know that this really encouraged me is is when i was reading one of the commentaries by john phillips on ii peter and he started talking about now i've seen it pronounced two different ways george muller and george mueller um he uh he he ran an orphanage in bristol england uh in the in the mid to late 1800s uh he died in the in the late 1800s uh and this orphanage that he ran he never did a fundraiser campaign all he did nothing wrong with fundraiser campaigns it just wasn't george's style and there's there's great books and documentaries about his life his his name is george and you spell his name m-u-l-l-e-r but they put those two little dots over the u so i've heard it as mueller and i've heard it as mueller but anyway i think mueller's right because of the the dots but but anyway that's how you spell it look for evangelists in bristol england and you'll you'll see this so god always provided what his orphanage needed it said that he took care of over 10 000 children throughout his lifetime and never once did he ask for a donation from anybody the food the the stuff that they needed for the kids just came in every time they needed it he had a powerful powerful prayer life so if you've got someone like i do in your life or people in your life that you're like are they ever going to come to repentance are they ever going to come to redemption never ever stop praying for them and this is what peter is reminding us he said he had five people in his life this is george mueller or mueller he said he had five people in his life that he knew were not redeemed and he prayed for them over and over again and here's how it broke down the five people all of them came to christ but i want you to listen to the time period one of them came to christ after he prayed for them for five years okay by the way that's the smallest number you're gonna hear so one of the people in his life that he knew was lost came to redemption in five years two of them were redeemed after he prayed for them for ten years okay another one was redeemed now making the total of four after he prayed for them this person for 25 years 25 years five years one was redeemed ten years two were redeemed the fourth one came in after 25 years of being prayed for by george mueller the final one of the five that were on his heart that he knew the final one of the five came to redemption a few months after he died in 1898 he was redeemed after 52 years that george prayed for him 52 years so the patience that god has is is you see what peter's telling us and paul told us it's really tied to his desire that no one perish and we should have that same attitude uh look you may get to the point that you're you're done having conversations in person because maybe they lead the arguments i can relate to that uh maybe they don't go well well get on your face and pray for them get on your face and pray for them and and thank god for his patience that this person that you know or love has not yet been condemned because the lord is delaying his return or is keeping this person alive so so be diligent and in your prayers for them and remember about the patience that we have been given as well so uh the next part is is is that um you know peter throws in this this word of admiration uh that you see uh to his brother paul in verse 15 as well and i love this because if you remember this for some of you out there that are petty uh you know if there's one thing we need to remove from our life is pettiness you know that we don't want to forgive somebody or we can't ever forget what somebody said to us if you go to the book of galatians you will find uh in chapter 11 uh and you can you can read through what happened here with with peter um involving paul as you know peter struggled you know paul was the one who who who led the way in trying to teach the original 12 that redemption is for the gentile as well you know peter was was all in on his own people you know coming to know christ and he was ready to preach to his own people as a jewish man but he struggled because his entire life he had learned to hate despise and consider gentiles to be unclean people um and so paul was the one who said hey these jewish rituals and all this stuff about circumcision all that hey that's not in play when it comes to redemption and he he took peter and held him accountable in front of everybody because there's an incident in galatians which is documented in chapter 11 where paul called peter out because peter was hanging around some gentile people until these jewish people that he knew showed up and then he acted like he had nothing to do with the gentiles went over and sat with the jewish people wouldn't eat with the gentiles uh you know god you know called him to go to the house of gentiles when he didn't want to because he considered them unclean and even eat whatever they served you know so so peter had a a struggle really what you could call racism uh he he didn't care for gentile people paul helped him to overcome that disdain but instead of peter pouting about paul getting on him and holding him accountable he writes in his final letter on earth a word of admiration for paul not a time to dig at paul he's not holding that against paul he know that paul he knows that paul did that because he wanted peter to be right as a follower of christ and not have an area of his life that he didn't have right see some of you out there watching this and listening you're so you're so prideful that that if anybody has ever spoken to your life and said something about you that was correct by the way that they came to you biblically correct and they called you out for something in your life that that wasn't right instead of you admiring that person for loving you enough or acknowledging that person was right and and thankful for the correction that they helped you make you still hold the stand against them you're still pouting about it well peter wasn't he holds paul in high regard uh peter was uh was man enough to know that paul was right and he corrected his behavior and he did not harbor dislike of paul because look what he calls him his beloved brother paul verse 15 and count the patience of our lord as salvation just as our beloved brother paul who also wrote to you according to the wisdom that was giving him so he calls him he doesn't say and you know i know paul says some stuff about that of course he's so full of himself always going around telling everybody what they're doing wrong no he didn't have that attitude he was peter was not a scoffer you ever been around those people you try to hold him accountable and instead of listening to you they scoff at it you know they always think that you're self-righteous or full of yourself because you had a biblical fact that that was wrong in their life and they weren't man enough or woman enough uh to acknowledge it and and they instead they they they didn't thank you for holding them accountable and the proverbs talk about this you know that that a fool will be angry if you try to speak accountability into their life but it's a it's a wise person that listens uh to exhortation so peter was wise he listened to the exhortation of paul and acknowledged that he was right paul was a man of intellectual genius fearless courage transparent honesty strategic vision tireless zeal he was single purpose-minded he he had a just an incredible loyalty to the people that he served with he had immense compassion and he also had sterling above reproach character and people either loved paul or they loathed him that's what i love about the apostle paul there was no middle ground with paul people either loved him or they hated him and they loved him for the right reasons and you know what usually when they hated him it just said more about how how wonderful paul was not how great these people were those that went against him looked bad and those who loved him looked like they made the right decision and peter clearly loved him because paul had taught him to love the gentiles paul opposed you know setting up the church only in jerusalem and didn't want jerusalem to become this mother church and the only people that were going to be christians were jewish people paul rejected that idea and he said it must spread throughout the earth and you know what peter came to appreciate paul's genius and appreciate paul's vision and the fact that he's writing these letters to jews and gentiles mainly gentiles these last letters you see that he actually listened to paul now we have verse 16. talking about paul uh he says now not only did he talk about the patience he says paul also said as he does in all his letters when he speaks in in them of these matters there are some things that's what he says about paul in them that are hard to understand talking about the letters of paul which also means that paul's letters even why peter was still alive they were considered scripture so so this garbage that they were not holy spirit inspired or you know these people that'll go through the new testament and they'll pull out the letters of paul and say well i don't know that i really want to listen to paul peter did peter absolutely did and he he acknowledged that paul's letters were god inspired that they were called scripture so he says in these letters there are things that are hard to understand but then he goes on with and admonishes us a little bit for saying that we think that paul's letters might be hard to understand or some of the concepts and they can be in the letters of paul but peter goes on to say if you call them hard to understand he says which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruct destruction as they do the other scriptures so there's that word scripture so what did he call paul's letters even in his lifetime scripture it's right here i'm pointing at the bible peter referred to paul's letters as scripture god breathed god got inspired while he was still alive so peter acknowledges that some of paul's writings can be hard to understand but he then he goes on to say but be careful to take the time to understand them because the ignorant and unstable and then the word the greek word here for unstable also means unbalanced they twist or the greek word for here would say torture the scripture so to make sure that these people don't fool you remember the original reason for this second letter watch out for false teachings watch out for heresy and apostasy to come up out of the church just like the persecution that's coming from from inside the church just like the persecution that's coming from outside you need to learn to interpret paul's letters in all scripture properly no passage should ever be divorced from its context boy i've learned this in the last few years of my walk with christ be very very careful that you always take a larger view of a passage it should be grasped from a larger view before attempting to come to grips with its details be sure you understand the micro concepts of any given scripture before you start digging in to the micro details because if you don't get the macro right as you dive into the micro details you're going to hit those details in the wrong context remember one things i've learned by bible teachers that have helped me tremendously be sure that your theology rises up out of scriptures not you taking your theology and forcing it down on top scripture that's incorrect and when you see this a lot it's somebody that's based their entire theology on like one verse they've never taken the time to read the entire bible to realize the way they're interpreting this one verse is incorrect because they they don't understand the entire concept of the bible or maybe they don't understand you know who this uh particular book of the bible who's this letter being written to uh what's going on during this time uh what what what are these references referring to uh during the time that it was written all these things are extremely important to fully understand and when you're going through a chapter of the bible you can't just pull one verse out you know it's just like the the whole thing of you know while we run into people you know putting on run-through signs at high school football games i can do all things through christ who strengthened me you know back before they you know that when they would still let you do that in a government school um well what you have to understand the entire book of philippians you you got to know what's going on you got to know what paul is talking about so that you understand that that is not a a scripture about victory it's not a scripture about god's going to give me what i want that's not what it's about it is a scripture about suffering it's a scripture about enduring whatever you have to endure to be right with god or to advance his kingdom and he'll give you the strength to endure anything not to accomplish anything but to endure anything no matter what situation you're in it's kind of an example what i'm talking about so um so you need to know the scope and the purpose of the books uh you need to know as i said who's being addressed theology or doctrine should never be based on one scripture say it again theology and doctrine should never be based on one piece of scripture and peter says be careful not to wrestle a scripture to to to one's own destruction and he says cults one of the commentaries are famous for this you know where where they they try to pull one one scripture out of a out of the of an entire book of the bible or out of the entire bible and they build a cult without knowing all the different things about this scripture and see if you don't know that then some cult leader or you know he said some unstable person some ignorant person some some pastor somewhere and i use that word loosely uh some church leader somebody who's written some book that you know you're reading some rob bell book or something and you don't know that this is apostasy you don't know this is heresy because you don't know the bible from a macro view well enough to understand that somebody's taking the micro detail and they're abusing it and and what he's saying is this could lead to your own destruction that that that's why this is extremely important so he says now things to be aware of to be aware of in verse 17 and 18. you should listen you therefore beloved knowing this beforehand take care that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability now now this is big don't be carried away by these people i love i'll ever heard this phrase before to be forewarned is also to be forearmed right i mean have you ever noticed that you see this all the time if you look up and you see a road sign and you're driving don't you like when a road sign tells you hey real narrow curve coming what if you didn't know that what do you do when you see there's a real narrow turn coming especially if you're riding on the road you've never been there before well you slow down and you get ready to take a sharp curve what if there were no signs you had no idea here you're riding alone at speed limit or maybe you're exceeding it a little bit and you have no idea the sharp curve is coming well that could be problematic but when you know it then you prepare yourself for it i mean how many times do you love when somebody have you ever like been going on a trip somewhere um you know maybe you're going to some theme park you're you're a new parent you got small kids don't you like talking to somebody says now look let me give you a heads up now don't do this and look when you see this now that don't do that do this don't and then this now let me tell you what you don't need to do don't you love that because to be forewarned is to be forearmed i'm now prepared and what peter is saying is there are wicked people out there and they're lawless which by the way the greek word here is a-t-h-e-s-m-o-s asthasmus i'm guessing uh thesimus but anyway this is a word that's any kind of greeky the way i said it then this is the same word that is used for the lawlessness of sodom and gomorrah so he's saying these kind of sodom and gomorrah lawless people are out there they're wicked uh they're torturing scripture they're abusing scripture and if you don't get ready for what's coming if you don't know the word of god the way you need to know it with all that is coming they're going to carry you away and you're going to lose your stability or the word here in in greek is is the word means like a foothold like you know you're trying to climb up and you you got a good solid foothold don't lose your your foothold so here's what he's saying don't go with these wicked people he almost says don't go but do grow write that down that's there's a little little cute little phrase don't go meaning don't be drugged off by all these false teachers and these false prophets but do grow which means if if i don't want to be carried off by these people and i don't want to go then i got to grow in my knowledge of scripture don't do this but let me tell you what you do need to be doing because here's here's what a lot of plans are and it was my plan for way too long and i had this goofy plan of i'll just kind of wait and see what happens how many times in your life is your game plan being let's wait and see what happens that's a good one in it hey that really really leads to a lot of problems uh no we need to know what we're doing and and be prepared for what's coming uh if we don't want to have a negative experience or if we don't want to be you know fooled and carried off by some of this ridiculous teaching there's a there's a lot of people um you know i was talking to a guy one day and he started going down the road about some podcast he'd found and i said hey man do you know that podcast uh what you just said to me is not biblically sound well you know i'm just talking about you know at the beginning you know and uh you know i'm just reading this guy he's talking about you know god may not be who we've always been told he was and we got to go back and remember you know that originally you know god was nothing but love man well you know god is love there's no doubt about that but that's not the only thing in his character if we don't teach and that's what we're going to get into in our next series knowing god you have to teach everything about god and the guy was like we have to go back and remember you know that uh that god god loved us and you know we got to remember the love no that is a great thing to know that god loved us it is but i said now you do realize though that in genesis chapter six uh that god was so put out with people that he regretted ever making us and he killed everybody but eight people so we need to be sure we include that so that when he gets ready to do this the second time and the final time as as peter warns us about when everything is going to be burned and the elements are going to be torn apart and those that are not redeemed will be destroyed with every ounce of sin with satan with the third of the demons that went against god all that's coming to an end so we need to know that too and that that still works because god loves us enough that he offered redemption but we need to know why we were offered redemption there's a reason for that and that is because because god is also holy and his wrath will be handed out on any anything and everything that is not holy so we better know that too or we don't even understand redemption you see the point you got to know the whole thing so so anyway that that is what he's saying you need to grow in your knowledge of god remember our next series it ties it's gonna flow right off of this you can even know about god but not know god this cannot be a casual relationship and it cannot be kind of a surfacey inch deep mile wide knowledge of god you gotta you gotta know what you're talking about so it's it's so so listen to this so then he goes on to say this he wants to end the letter and he's gonna close with the word that that that is is the word that we all love to hear because it is the truth about god that that gives us hope and that is his grace now don't miss that peter is going to close this letter in very much the same way that paul does back to this relationship between paul and peter again and and he's going to remind us that we need to look at look at verse 18 but grow in the grace praise the lord in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity amen so he is saying that we need to grow but we also need to grow in grace think of god saving grace grow in the truth of jesus and his sacrifices for us get to know jesus understand about his saving grace you've got to get to know you can't just service the understand this grace word and not know what it means not know what cost it came at not understanding why jesus did what he did you know we we have we have god's sovereign grace meaning that you know that that you know he he put together a plan to overcome the obstacles that satan placed before us so there's the sovereign grace we've got to understand everything about grace there's that sovereign grace the the plan of redemption that god put into action to counter move satan's move when he went in and rightfully took over authority of the earth by coaxing us away from god and to sin so then jesus comes to take us back into that proper relationship with god and and takes that and gives us gives that back to us and that was god's sovereign grace a plan he put into work even before the dawn of time but then we have god's sustaining grace it sanctifies and it gives us the power to survive on this narrow path that jesus says that we all embark on if we're going to follow him remember he said the road is wide and easy that leads to destruction and many are on that path but those of us that will be redeemed and have been saved by grace through faith okay by grace through faith that faith is a faith of action we now enter a narrow gate and there's no way for us to stay on that narrow path without a sustaining grace that power in that grace that is changing us and sanctifying us and sanctifying us into the people that jesus says we have to be and we can't do it how do we do it by taking action of pursuing christ following christ being sanctified remember what paul said to thessalonica it is the will of the father that your sanctification continues that's that sustaining grace and i got news for you if if god's grace hasn't changed you and if god's grace hasn't changed me we've never experienced god's grace yes it is a sovereign grace but it's a sustaining grace and then guess what else it is it's a sufficient grace praise god for that jesus conquered all of our problems even eternal death our sin yes but when he walked out of that tomb he also overcame our eternal death peter learned from paul that jesus's grace was and is sufficient we must pursue a lifelong quest to know jesus christ we must it's a sovereign grace it's a sustaining grace and it is a sufficient grace and here is peter ending this letter by saying we need to grow in the grace know everything about it and we need to have knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ why do we need knowledge about jesus well i'll tell you why because i can't love anybody that i don't know and and and i can't obey anybody that i don't love jesus said in john 14 in our study of the gospel of john if you love me then you obey me well i can't know anybody i've never met and i can't love anybody that i've never known and i can't obey somebody that i don't love so there has to be a pursuit of the knowledge of jesus christ so i ask you how much knowledge you have do you have of your lord and savior if you claim that jesus is your lord and savior and you claim that he's all encompassing and that he has saved you from the depths of hell he has redeemed you of all sin how well do you know your lord what's important that you do peter says and the last thing he's going to say on on this side of eternity he says you need to grow in grace understand this grace but you also need to have knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ you we should never stop the pursuit of knowing everything we could possibly ever grasp and know about jesus because the more that i get to know him man the more i love him and the more i love him and the grace that he's afforded me the more that grace continues to sanctify me and the more that he sanctifies to be the the less i feel captive to the sins of my flesh and the sins of this world it's true i i can't tell you a uh you know a game plan uh that that or some new code of conduct or legalism that has taken away the power of sin over me in my life jesus did but that happened with my pursuit of him and that sanctifying power of that sustaining grace then he says to wrap up the the letter and to wrap up this is the last time we hear from peter on earth to him to jesus to him be the glory is that how you live your life peter is on his way out and he's not saying on his way out oh by the way i'm about to be martyred and to me be the glory hey remember me hold me in high regard you need to know a lot of knowledge about me no he he didn't he said in his final words that that were going to be written down either physically by his hand or through silas or someone else who was writing it to him to jesus be the glory man i hope that's how i die i i think a lot of us live our lives and i've been guilty of this so this is me talking about myself too we live our lives hoping that we live in such a way that it brings us glory that people will always remember us to us be the glory now peter is saying we should live our lives that when we die to him be the glory that people look at who jesus was in our life and they think a lot of him even if they don't think much of us to him be the glory so at this point peter is done either dictating his final letter or he's putting the pen down and we have heard the last of him on this side of heaven and you know what was coming for him pretty quick the old knock on the door and that nero and and not not literally nero but the people that nero sends out they find him and he was arrested and he was sentenced to death by crucifixion so the very man who at one time when it came the opportunity to go to the cross with jesus he did not go he abandoned jesus before he got the holy spirit but then peter gets the holy spirit at pentecost and peter is reconciled back to jesus and even in these letters we see that he was committed to doing exactly what jesus told him to do to feed you and me to tend to you and me to exhort you and me to prepare you and me to give us the forewarning of how we should live and then he gets crucified and and many of the commentators of the day who were journalists of the day uh there's pretty strong evidence not everybody believes it happened this way everybody believes he was crucified because that that's that that's true but there are some indications that he was crucified upside down because he said that he was not worthy to be crucified in the same way that his lord and savior was crucified so to degrade him they crucified him upside down but do you remember that jesus told peter that when this day came that he would be with him that peter would not suffer alone he would not be crucified alone that he would be comforted by the very presence of his lord and savior so you know what peter said by going to a cross whether it was just a straight-up crucifixion or crucifix crucified upside down you know the last thing that he said to everybody to him be the glory to jesus be the glory amen let's pray lord thank you for these words and i hope that we hear them and we adhere to them and we apply them to our lives if we don't sense right now a purging of the american church then i don't know what we're paying attention to uh yes there is persecution coming from the outside by overreaching governments but in this second letter we probably see more of the second warning from peter in the second letter and that is the apostasy and the heresy and the false teaching that is rising up within the church and may we listen to the warnings of peter and may we be about knowing everything that we should know about your inspired word and lord jesus that we should know everything about you so that no one can say anything against you and fool us i pray lord that you be with us i pray lord if there's anyone that's watching this or listening to this right now that is yet to be redeemed or maybe just need to repent of sin in their life of things that peter convicted them of today that that would take place and i pray if you're out there right now and you think i don't know that i know what i need to know about jesus maybe it's because you've never been redeemed and today you for the first time you meant it or for the first time in your life you say lord jesus i repented of my sin i turn from my sin lord and i turn to you i submit to your authority and i believe in my heart and i confess with my mouth that you are lord and i believe that you defeated my sin and eternal death when your father rose you from the dead dead on the day when you walked out of the tomb and lord jesus i know that if i die my earthly death before you return i will stand in your presence either redeemed or condemned or if you return in my lifetime on that day i will stand redeemed or condemned and lord today i want to be redeemed and i ask that you save me in the name of jesus we pray amen if you've said that prayer for the first time in your life or maybe the first time you ever meant it reach out to me ricky rickybubba.com i'll be happy to work with you and help you any way that i can hey thank you for being with us through this study of first and second peter i hope you'll continue to stay with us as we start next week if you want to go ahead and get you a copy of the j.i packer book knowing god and you can go through it together or no need to do that i'll walk through it for you and with you when we come back for next week's bible study thanks for being with us

Channel: Rick & Bubba

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Id: gSqNiJ0xVWI

Length: 56min 8sec (3368 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020