A Final Call for Diligence & Discernment

Transcript

GR 1970
11/13/2016
A Final Call for Diligence and Discernment
II Peter 3:14-16
Gil Rugh

We are going to 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter writes this last letter anticipating his imminent execution as he indicated in chapter 1. He is writing to believing Jews. Things are difficult obviously. Peter is anticipating his own execution for his testimony of faith in Christ. That gives you some idea of what the atmosphere is like in the Roman world at this time for believers. And to be a believing Jew of course added as you also had unbelieving Jews opposed to you because of your faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah and then the opposition of the whole unbelieving world generally.

So he writes to encourage them, to remind them. He tells them not to be discouraged, the first part of chapter 3. That is consistent. We can expect in the last days that mockers would come. They would make fun of us for claiming to believe that the Jesus who was raised from the dead was coming again, that there was a sovereign God at work in the world carrying out His purposes and plans. They choose to ignore the obvious. So that is the problem. In their unbelieving heart they refuse to recognize what is clearly true. But believers shouldn’t be worn down by these facts. So he reminded them, verse 8 that the Lord is carrying out His purposes and plans. He is not behind schedule. He is not ahead of schedule. He is right on schedule.

“One day with the Lord is as a thousand years. A thousand years as one day.” When you put 1,000 years on the scale of eternity it dwindles to be something rather insignificant. That is the point that is being made. It seems like a long time to us with our rather short life span in this physical world but don’t lose your perspective. That is what he is telling believers and God has a real purpose in this. Verse 9 was God desires to give time to the unbeliever to realize his lost hopeless condition. God’s desire is for all to come to repentance. He is going to return to this theme in the verses we are going to be looking at further on in this chapter.

He reminds them that the present world and all that is in it is going to be consumed by fire. As one facing martyrdom you realize the strength that gave him. He is not losing anything. He will soon be removed from this world, his family. You know from the Gospels that Peter was a married man. We don’t know any more about his family, his children, whatever but when he is executed it is easy to get consumed with the now. We think “Oh, I am going to miss this. I am going to lose this. I…” Peter says, “Keep your perspective. When the day of the Lord comes all these things will be melted down, consumed.” That ought to motive us to be more concerned about holiness and godliness.

So verse 11: “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and Godliness.” This is what we are concerned about; lives in which God is working His purpose in conforming us to His character and we anticipate the destruction of all these things because we look for the ultimate end, verse 13, “The new heavens and the new earth.” This is the pattern we talked about as we began our study of Revelation. That is where we are going. When you get to the closing chapters, chapter 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation we will come through this time and the melting down of the earth and so on, the consuming of all these things and find that believers are living eternally in the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of the glory of God, perfected in their holiness.

So verse 14: “Therefore beloved since you look for these things be diligent to be found by Him in peace; spotless and blameless.” And we commented on this verse. We will pick up here now. He addresses them again as “beloved.” We noted he did that in verse 1, he does it in verse 14. He does it in verse 17. He will use it one other time but not in exhortation to them. We will see that in a moment. He stresses his love for them. It is natural. Here is a man not in his bed like we talk about his death bed but he is nearer that end. He is not going to die in bed. He is going to be martyred so these are closing comments and these are people he loves. He has poured his life into ministering to them. He wants them to be encouraged. He doesn’t want his death to be a disappointment, a discouragement. You know you realize you are losing the apostles. Paul is going to die under the same persecution under Nero. They are not pleasant times but don’t get discouraged God is working His purpose. These are days of God’s patience. He is putting up with sinful men; even their sinful action is not frustrating His plan. Be encouraged.

“Therefore beloved since you look for these things, the new heavens and the new earth” that are going to be the ultimate end, “Be diligent.” And that word, “be zealous, be diligent.” It is interesting how many times God’s people are encouraged with such an exhortation. A passionate Christianity, a ho-hum Christianity is foreign to what God says ought to characterize us. “You be zealous, you be diligent, you be passionate to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.” This is the same thing he talked about in verse 11. “Since all things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?” Be zealous, be diligent, be spotless and blameless and the emphasis is on that. A little different order than we have arranged it in English here. But the point is the same, that zeal, that passion, the earnestness.

Back up to chapter 1, verse 5. We remind ourselves. In I Peter chapter 1, verse 5 he talks about “the inheritance” in verse 4 that “we have in heaven. Imperishable, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you.” So you see as we come to the end of the letter he has a similar kind of emphasis. “Who are protected by the power of God for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times.” In his second letter, chapter 1, verse 5, the same now in anticipation of those times we want to have the character that we are looking for. We have that heavenly inheritance, we have the new heavens and the new earth where inheritance ultimately is because remember the new heavens and the new earth and heaven will be merged together. We will talk about more of the detail of this when we get to Revelation 21 and 22 but God’s throne now where He manifests His presence among His creation because he is the omnipresent God but He manifests His presence in heaven. When we get to the closing chapters of Revelation we find out His throne is moved to earth, the new earth. So we have heaven and the new heavens and the new earth that is where God will manifest His presence. That’s where our reward is. That’s where we will live and serve for eternity.

So in light of that our inheritance is there. Now in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 5, “For this reason applying all diligence,” there is our word again. That’s why prophecy is so crucial, knowing something of the future. That’s not just, “well, that’s interesting things but we need things to help us now.” This is what drives us now. We live in light of where we are going. As soon as we drop our eyes down from that perspective we begin to feel like, you know, you are walking through heavy mud. You know it just gets to be tiresome and toilsome and you just can lose your passion for it. It seems every day is just drudgery. I am just grinding it on. You know, plugging along but there is more to it than that. We are to be diligent. We apply all diligence in our faith. We are people who have placed our faith in Christ. Now we have a zeal, a passion, a diligence as he said there in light of where we are going and the development of our character is what he is talking about.

Come down to verse 10: “Therefore brethren, be all the more diligent.” There is our word again, spoudaios. Some of you have taken some Greek; that zeal, that passion, diligence. We know what we are about. We know why we are here. We know something of where we are in the plan of God and we know for sure where we are going. So we are going at it.

You know we see this in sports and activity. You watch a game on the weekend. They are moving toward a goal. They know where they are going. They just don’t run around out there, at least they shouldn’t. You know they are supposed to be going toward the goal, toward the end. Everything is directed toward that. That is the way we are. The world is aimless. They make transitory goals that are related to this life which is going to ultimately pass away and this earth melted away as Peter has talked about.

We are a passionate people about where we are going. We have a focus, single-minded if you will. So what he reminded them of in the first letter, what he repeated in the second letter and now as he wraps us diligence, passion. That is what ought to characterize us.

Stop and think about it. People that are familiar with you – would they say, “He is a focused person. He has a diligence and a passion in his service for the Lord. That doesn’t mean we can’t be diligent about our jobs, we should because we do our secular jobs what? As unto the Lord. Everything in our life is put into this perspective of ultimately to be pleasing the One that we will serve in His presence forever.

Come back to 2 Peter chapter 3. We want to be found spotless and blameless. That is God’s goal for us, to be like Him, to be conformed to His character in the context of where we just were in chapter 1 of this letter, in the development of our character. That is an ongoing process. I am more mature than I was three years ago but I am not as mature as I want to be in the days ahead. I don’t want to park. I don’t want to stop. I can’t. We need to continue to mature and grow and be more and more conformed to His character. That is what it is to be spotless and blameless.

Come back to I Peter chapter 1 again. We could have picked this up when we were here. What he said in verse 18. Again it is in the context of our conduct. In verse 17 we conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our stay on earth and that followed the previous command in verse 15 to be holy because God says “You shall be holy for I am holy.”

Then verse 18: “Though you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless.” And the perfection of the character of the One who is our Savior is now His purpose and plan for us, we who have become partakers of the divine nature.

Back over in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3: “His divine power has granted to us everything necessary for life and godliness.” Verse 4: “By these He has granted to us precious and magnificent promises so that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature.” Again, we can’t become God. God is eternal. So that is not what He is saying but His character, His holiness, His purity, all that characterizes Him in His character as God. “We have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” So we have been set free. Now we are in a passionate pursuit to be more like Him, the beauty of His character, to be seen in every way in our lives. That is the purpose of our salvation because you know what ultimately will happen?

Come back to Colossians chapter 1, Colossians chapter 1; great passage. The work of Christ accomplished to provide reconciliation. Verse 19: “All the fullness of deity dwells in Christ in bodily form and it was God’s pleasure through Him to reconcile all things to Himself having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Then verse 21: “And although you were formerly alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death;” so His death on the cross.” That is why He became man so He could die in our place, why, “In order to present you before Him,” before His Father as what, “Holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Now that is our ultimate destiny and that will be realized because of the finished work of Christ. “The One who has begun a good work in us will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus,” Philippians 1 tells us but that is the pursuit we are on. I want more and more of that to be true of me, to characterize me now. That is a process of growth in light of what our ultimate destiny is. And ultimately we will be presented in our perfected state in the very presence of God and what a contrast.

You are in Colossians, the contrast –“You were formerly alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds and now because of the reconciliation accomplished by the finished work of Christ we will be presented as holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” God will have nothing to say against us. There will be no charges that can be brought against us. The slate has been washed clean. How remarkable.

Come back to 2 Peter 3. That is what our diligence is about. We live in light of our destiny. We live in light of what God has accomplished for us in the past, the work He is doing in the present in light of what we will ultimately be when the work is fully realized.

“Beloved since you look for these things,” so you see our focus again keeping our eyes fixed on what, the new heavens, the new earth. Realizing in between that there will be things happening that will culminate with the destruction of this present world and the world system. “Be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless;” in peace, a great word. Some say it is the peace that we have in Christ. Some say it is the peace that is produced in our life day by day and they are inseparably connected. I think in light of the fact that this is part of our being diligent, to be found spotless and blameless that shows something of the responsibility on us in our action and the in peace also would be characterized by that. But it is founded on the relationship of peace that has been established with God.

Isaiah says on a couple of occasions, Isaiah 48, verse 22: “There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.” So we are talking about peace and having peace and then living out peace. This is something that we are talking about that is foreign to the wicked. They have a relative peace in the human realm and we talk about peace on that level in a variety of settings but the true peace that God provides is something the world cannot have.

While you are in Isaiah come over to chapter 57. The same thing is said. Verse 20 and this will see the connection of where it is going, verse 20 says of Isaiah 57: “The wicked are like the tossing sea”. It cannot be quiet. Its waters toss of refuge and mud. “There is no peace says my God for the wicked.” And the problem is we will look at in a moment, it comes from hearts that have no peace, that are not in right relationship with God. We were created for a relationship with God and because of sin that relationship is no longer existent. So now we are in our innermost being unsettled, in turmoil.

Come over to the New Testament, John 14. Look at verse 27. What does Jesus say? “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” That is His intention for us; that is His provision for us. We are brought into a right relationship with God, that inner peace.

In Romans 5:1 we are told that “Having been justified by faith we have peace with God.” Come over to Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14 we are told, “For He Himself is our peace.” So that is the foundational issue, that peace with God. So as Philippians 4, verse 7 says, “The peace of God now stands guard at our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

So when we recognize our sin that we are the enemies of God, we are hostile in our heart and mind toward God. We turn from our sin to place our faith in Christ by His grace we enter into a relationship now of peace with God. We who were the enemies of God are now members of His own family. He calls us His children. We have been bought into a relationship of peace with Him. Now He can bring His peace to those hearts who were in turmoil, unsettled and this is what enables us then to have peace with others.

You can’t reverse it. You come out here and think we can create peace. We can’t. The world is in constant turmoil. We are going to sign all kinds of peace treaties and that’s fine on that level. That goes on and by the common grace of God we can live in a world that in least in places has a relative peace. But the true peace that begins in the heart is non-existent. There is no peace in the world. Turn on the news. Look what even happens in the streets of our own country. Look at the violence that takes place. You get statistics of how many people are murdered in a year and all these kinds of things. It all comes back to a heart.

Come to James chapter 4. He has talked about at the end of chapter 3, verse 13: “Who is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and self-ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable,” so on. “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” Chapter 4 we flow right in to. “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” So you see, where does it start? Where does the conflict start? It starts in the heart. Until the heart is settled in its relationship with God there is no external peace. That is the problem. It comes back to the condition of the heart.

You are familiar with many verses. Now sometimes even we as believers don’t experience it. “Well the peace of God is standing guard at my heart but I am sure worried about this. I am afraid about what is taking place or…” What a minute, we are not supposed to fear. Now it is possible for us to live consistent and that is the challenge. We are to be found spotless, blameless, in peace. All of these things are to characterize us. The salvation that God has provided comes with the enablement to live in light of it but we often choose not to and so our eyes drop down. We look at the unsettledness in the world. There is tribulation and oh, then I wonder what is going to happen. Will this happen and then the fears of the world overtake us? Wait a minute. I am supposed to be a child of God. I don’t have to fear. He promises that His peace will stand guard at my heart but I can’t live like the world and that is where James 4 goes. Verse 4: “You adulteress, don’t you know friendship with the world is hostility toward God.” It is not a matter I have placed my faith in Christ. Now I know I am not going to hell. Now I turn around and go back and live like the world. Then Christians begin to develop the same kind of problems the world has and then the confusion comes because you think “Well, at least if I was an unbeliever I could think there was hope if I trusted Christ. Then my life would be changed but now I have trusted Christ and I find myself” what, then I have to get back. Wait a minute. I say we start there at the foundation of what God has done for us in Christ, His provision for us, the enablement that comes with it and now we conduct ourselves in light of it.

You know I am out here afraid, and in turmoil and unsettled and other things are characterizing my life that shouldn’t. I take a step back and sometimes I step back to the beginning and look and say, “I examine myself to see if I am in the faith. I don’t want to delude myself. Maybe the problem I am having with living a godly life, a holy life, having peace in my life, all of that. I need to come back and say, ‘wait a minute.’ Has the basic relationship been settled?” And then I work out from that if it has. Now am I taking hold of what God says for me and living in light of it, conducting myself accordingly? He provides the enablement from the indwelling Spirit. You know we keep coming back to this in various passages of Scripture and now I move on. That ought to be the zeal of our life.

Come back to 2 Peter 3. This is not new. You know you keep at it. It gets difficult. We talk about this. Over time what happens to churches, what happens to Christians? They can almost like a clock you wind up. Some of you here are so young you may not know they used to have wind up clocks. You know and if you didn’t wind it regularly it winds down.

I have, since I am so old, I have a clock on my credenza and it needs wound up. It is what you call an eight day clock. I am waiting for it to wind down totally so I can reset it with the new time. Christians can be like that. What happened? You know what happens to a church that is zealous and passionate and we would say, “On fire for the Lord?” And you go back in a few years and wow. What happens to us? You know remember God said this to Israel. “I remember the devotion of your youth. Your passion for Me in those days.” What happens? Why does it cool down? That is not supposed to happen.

So remember what the Lord is doing. Everything is on schedule. You know and that same passion and enthusiasm when you first got saved. Boy, I let go of everything for the Lord. I don’t care what else I have. I want to serve the Lord. I want to know more about Him and over time it just becomes one of many things.

So he comes back to the patience of the Lord, verse 15: “And regard the patience of the Lord as salvation.” This is the same thing as we had in verse 9 reminding them in verses 8 and 9 that the passing of time doesn’t mean that the Lord is not going to do what He promised or it is just dragging on. It is not dragging on as God has planned it. Well, I thought the Lord would have come by now.

You know, I remember visiting with our parents. Marilyn and I were both privileged to have Christian parents. Talking about the coming of the Lord, but you know what? They died and the Lord hasn’t come and now here I am talking as an old man about the coming of the Lord and you know you can read in saints from past history. I am reading some of the Puritans and they’re back in the 1600’s and they were talking about the coming of the Lord. “I don’t know when He is coming but it’s probably not going to be in my life.” “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”

We hear testimonies of those who have been saved. Is that precious to us? Say “Thank You, Lord, for Your grace that has given time for more people to hear the Gospel.” We see that in our time. Remember those early days when you wanted to be sure your parents or your children or your friends heard about Christ? You were newly saved. You wanted to tell them. We lose that same interest in their salvation. “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” These are times for people to be saved. This is the time of the fullness of the Gentiles, Romans 11 says when God is giving the Gentiles, especially, a time to be saved.

You know we ought to ask each other, “Do you know what is special about today? It is the day of God’s patience so people can be saved.” You might want to talk to an unbelieving friend that you talk to. “You know there is something special.” “I know, I know, we just selected a new president.” “Yes, that is something different about the day but that’s not what is most special about today. You know what is most special about today? God said He has delayed His judgment so you could have a chance to be saved. That is what is special. That is what is important. That’s what will matter in a million years. Who was president, who was this that another day God delayed judgment so that the Gospel could be shared so another person might be saved. “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” That puts it into perspective; another day, another day to go to work, another work to grind it out, no. “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation,” those you are praying for that they might be saved. Well now it is another day, another opportunity, thank You Lord for Your grace extending this opportunity. That is what Peter is reminding, “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation just as our beloved brother, Paul. According to the wisdom given to him wrote to you.”

Now we mention the word ‘beloved’ where Peter expressed his love for those he was writing to. We mention those examples in this last chapter but here he also refers to Paul as his “beloved brother.” And Paul had written to them; “Just as our beloved brother Paul. According to the wisdom given him, wrote to you.” So Paul wrote to these people as well.

You know what we like about Peter and his uniqueness as we talk about his blunders, his stumbles. We read and here we are in this chapter and who do you say that I am and Peter’s great testimony of faith in Christ and God speaks so highly of him. Peter turns around and the next thing Christ has to say to him is what? “Get behind me Satan. You don’t savor the things of God.” And we see Peter and he’s a real person. He speaks up when no one else will. You know you have to love Peter. But he is a godly man and he stumbles but he is up and going again. I mention that because here “Our beloved brother Paul” and you know what Paul did with Peter? He publicly rebuked him for being unbiblical, for acting in a way contrary to the Gospel.

Come back to Galatians 2. You know this is one of those letters, it says, Paul wrote to you. Now we know Peter wrote this letter to believing Jews scattered throughout the region of Asia Minor. That was at the introduction to his first letter, the Jews of the diaspora scattered in various places. Paul wrote letters to that same region, the letter to the Galatians, the letter to the Ephesians, the letter to the Colossians so evidently these Jews that Peter is writing to he doesn’t identify them to one limited region like Colossae or Galatia. They are just scattered throughout this whole region. More of a general letter but Paul had written to them in this region also with his letters.

Back in Galatians chapter 2, a letter which would have been written to the same region that Peter is writing to and in this letter, Galatians 2, come down to verse 11: “But when Cephas (and that is Peter, another name for Peter, Cephas) came to Antioch I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.” Now what happened? “Prior to the coming of certain men from James he used to eat with the Gentiles.” James was head of the church remember in Jerusalem. So it is a Jewish center. Jewish practices would have continued because a Jew was free still to not eat pork if he didn’t want to. He could observe the law and so on. Paul did that but he didn’t impose it on Gentiles. That is not necessary for salvation but when these Jews came from Jerusalem Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles because he thought the Jews, the Jewish believers from Jerusalem would look down on him and the rest of the Jews joined in this hypocrisy as Paul calls it in verse 13. Even Barnabas got caught up.

You know Peter was the kind of man that people followed. Sometimes they followed him even when he did the wrong thing but “When I saw they were not straight forward about the truth of the Gospel” because to imply that the Gentiles were still unclean, Gentile believers, and not bound together with Jews into one body is a denial of the Gospel. This is not just the freedom to eat or not eat. Peter is taking a stand here that implies and says that the Gentiles are still unclean. They are not clean like these Jewish believers because of what they eat. That is a denial of the Gospel. So Paul publicly rebukes him.

You know what we also like about Peter? He recovers from this, stumbles and moves on. So here we have him. Come back to 2 Peter, chapter 3. He can talk about “Our beloved brother, Paul,” even though the Galatians probably had read Paul’s letter to them and would now have been reading Peter’s letter as it circulated and you get the idea these letters circulated around, letters like Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Paul refers to this, “Tell them to read the letter I wrote to the Laodecians and pass your letter on to them,” this kind of thing. So Peter’s letters would have been circulated as well and probably churches would take the time to write out the letter so their church would have a copy of it to read and re-read it and though every individual member wouldn’t have that privilege you could have the church try to make a copy so they could have it for themselves as the letters passed on. So in God’s plan these letters were preserved.

When he says, “He writes according to the wisdom given him,” this is the grace of God bestowed upon Paul and he refers to it repeatedly. He refers to the fact that he is writing to them, he is speaking to them according to the grace that God gave him, gifting him as an apostle, gifting him to be a recipient of revelation. So Peter recognizes this in Paul and he will mention in the next verse that Paul’s letters are Scripture and as a Jew this is a statement. He is saying he recognizes Paul’s writings on the same level as the Old Testament Scriptures and “All Scripture is God breathed and profitable;” so the recognition very early that this was the Word of God. It didn’t take hundreds of years for people to finally recognize. They had to sort through material as false letters were written. We find that early that Paul had to refer to that and the letters that were falsely credited to him. He had to warn the Corinthians and others about those kinds of things but they recognized the genuineness of God’s grace in using Paul for example here.

And Peter is being used. Come back to I Peter chapter 1. He has touched on these things before. For the Old Testament prophets he says in verse 11: “The prophets prophesied (in verse 10) and it was what? “The Spirit of Christ within them was indicating.” So those Old Testament prophesies prophesied things relating to the coming of Christ. It was the Spirit of God moving them. Jesus told His disciples, remember, that on that last night the Holy Spirit that He was going to send to them would bring to their mind the things that He had told them.

Now there was a lot of scholarly work done on the Gospels in trying to explain the origin of the Gospels and how they would have collected this material and you know Luke tells us he checked various sources and that but the foundational explanation is for Matthew, Mark and John, they had been with Christ. They had heard him. I know, but you forget. Yes, but he said “the Holy Spirit would bring to your mind.” They had a supernatural recall to record those things. He goes on to talk about the power of this Word as we have seen in chapter 1.

Then you come over to 2 Peter and he talks similarly in chapter 1, verses 20 and 21. Verse 21: “No prophesy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” And that process is how we got our New Testament. Peter is acknowledging that about Paul here. He is speaking according to the wisdom God gave him. This is supernatural as Paul repeatedly refers to it, I Corinthians 3:10 and Galatians 2:9. Ephesians 3: 2 and 7, Romans 15:15. It was supernatural. They recognized it in the beginning that he was speaking the Word of God like Jeremiah was told at the beginning of his call to be a prophet. “I will put My Words in your mouth.” Ezekiel had a similar experience in Ezekiel 2 and following. This is God’s Word. We have it recorded. We understand it is the very Word of God. That is what Peter is saying.

So back in 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 16. Paul had written to them as Peter is writing to them and then also in all of his letters speaking in them of these things. I think the things he has talked about. Paul had some things written obviously about prophetic matters. He wrote about godliness like in Galatians chapter 5, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit and you don’t begin by the Spirit and then become perfected by the law as he had to tell the Galatians and he writes to the Ephesians and tells them “You put off the old man and you put on the new man.” And in that context he also wrote explaining the new work that God was doing that was revealed to him. The Jew and Gentile were joined together in one body.

Ephesians 3 says, “The fullness of the mystery of the church” was revealed to Paul and he was passing it on. So in Paul’s letters he writes of the things I have said here; and you love the humility of Peter. He says and “some of the things he writes about that are hard to understand.” He doesn’t mean it doesn’t take effort and work but you will note there is no excuse for distorting and twisting the Scriptures. When he says “some things are hard to understand” he goes on to say, “Which the untaught and unstable distort as they do the rest of the Scriptures to their own destruction. It is one thing for me to say, ‘some of this is hard to understand, it is going to take more study. It is another thing for me to twist it and to distort it to try to make it say what I want it to say rather than concern to understand what God has said.’”

Things are hard to understand. Not every portion of Scripture gets a cursory reading and I just understand it. We say, “You know I have to do a little more study on this. I have to dig a little more on it and then sometimes I forget. I come back and I search it out. We don’t have perfect understand of everything. That is different than twisting and distorting the Scripture. Important to see here, he says, “Some things are hard to understand but those who twist and distort the Scripture.”

This is done by the untaught. They haven’t really come to know and understand the Scripture. They are unbelievers and unbelievers do handle the Scripture. Unbelievers write commentaries on the Scriptures but they don’t really understand the Scriptures. They end up twisting them, distorting them. It concerns me.

You know the scholarly world; to be scholarly you have to be open minded. You know you have to show that you are open to all kinds of ideas. We have publishers now that used to be recognized as publishers of evangelical material and they still publish some evangelical material but they also publish commentaries by Roman Catholics and then the scholars use this material and they want to somehow incorporate it to show they are scholarly but at root it is poison. It is not only true of Roman Catholics it is true of unbelieving Protestants that will twist and distort the Scripture and well you don’t have to believe. Wait a minute. We do.

So the Scripture can be difficult to understand in parts. We recognize that. We are studying the book of Revelation. It is a revelation but you take a new believer. He sits down and reads the book of Revelation and they say, “I don’t know what he is talking about” because that necessitates what, an understanding of Old Testament Scripture. So that is where we are growing but that is different from those that are twisting and distorting the Scripture.

And in our growing we say, “Well you know I understand this passage differently than I used to” but we don’t get out of a passage something that is contrary. I can’t say, “Well this passage has caused me to understand Jesus Christ wasn’t really God. Now I understand this other passage teaches He is God but I think this passage teaches He wasn’t.” Now if I have that kind of reading on this I know I am misunderstand and there are portions of Scripture that I may say, “You know, I am not clear on that.” It will take more study and that is fine but we are talking about here the untaught and the unstable. They twist the Scripture. They distort it and that is a word that means to twist. It is torture. Sometimes we have a conversation and say, “That’s tortured exegesis.” I read a book and I now some of the writers and they are good men but the point they were trying to make I say, “That’s tortured exegesis. It seems to me they are ignoring the clear meaning of the passages to try to get it to fit a pre-conceived theological point.” That is this word, torture. That doesn’t mean Christians can’t sometimes do this but this is what the unbeliever does. They are untaught. They really don’t know when you get to the heart of it and they do this with all the Scriptures and they do it to their own destruction. These are unbelievers doomed to destruction. This is the way they handle the Scriptures.

Come back to Galatians since that would have been a letter of Paul that would have encompassed some of these same people since it is the same area. We are familiar with Galatians. In Galatians 1 he says what, verse 6: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different Gospel which is really not another.” He used two words here for a different Gospel “which is really not another one, another one like mine.” Wait a minute, I preached the Gospel to you. You said you believed it and responded. Now you are abandoning it for a different kind of Gospel that is not anything like mine.” You see what he has to say, verse 7: “There are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ.”

It happens and we begin to make changes. Now obviously these aren’t angels of light as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Messengers of Satan, masquerading as an angle of light.”

Remember what Satan did when he tempted Eve in the Garden? He doesn’t say, “I want to come and encourage you to rebel against God. I want to come and encourage you to follow me and reject God.” No, it was much more subtle. “I come to give you more clarity and help. This will enable you to be a better person, to have an understanding you otherwise wouldn’t have.” And it worked.

That is what is going on in the church. The church doesn’t get corrupted by somebody standing up next Sunday and saying, “You know, the trinity is not taught in the Bible and Jesus Christ wasn’t really God.” What happens? It comes in. Why are the Galatians getting confused? He wasn’t saying the Gospel was not true. They had changed the Gospel and they changed it in a way they didn’t deny the facts they just added something else. It is not a complete Gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. You also have to keep the law and doesn’t that make sense? You think God gave the law through Moses 500 years before Christ and then just wiped it off, of course not. Now he added to that with the coming of Christ so that now by keeping the law and also believing in Christ we can have a complete salvation. See, sounds good to me. Paul said, “That is not the Gospel at all. Even if an angel from heaven preached that’s going to hell.” So that is what Peter warns about, the preciousness of God’s Word but we have to be discerning and when the devil wants to confuse Christians he does it with a mixture of truth and in such a subtle way if we are not careful we find ourselves saying, “Well we have a lot we agree on. I can see, I think they have a point.” I am not saying true believers trying to work through and come to grips with a passage and sorting through different possibilities but we have to be careful.

There is an agenda. God’s intention for us is to remain true to His Word. The devil’s intension for us is to be subtly, gradually moved away from the Word and he will use a variety of techniques, a variety of methods. That’s why it is consistent in the Scripture. We don’t want to lose our focus. It has been 2,000 years since Christ was crucified, raised from the dead. You know what? He is coming again. The ultimate end will be a new heavens and a new earth and every believer will enjoy it. What is He waiting for? There are people to be saved.

So we get up tomorrow morning, the Lord hasn’t come, thank You Lord for Your grace of this day, for me to tell someone that there is a God who is loving and patient and merciful and they can be saved by believing in the Savior that I want to tell them about.

Let’s pray. Thank You Lord for Your grace for every day You give us; may they not be wasted. We look forward to the week ahead, Lord for every day of opportunity especially for the men as they will have special opportunity to invite men they have contact with to come and hear the Gospel as Ed shares. Lord, for hearts to be prepared, for our contacts wherever we are as You put us in various situations, in various places, may we not lose sight of what is of ultimate importance. May our lives be conformed to Your character wherever we are that You might be honored we pray in Christ’s name amen.