Dont' Be Carried Away

Peter, and you'll remember that the book of 2 Peter is a letter. It's a letter written by a man

named Peter, and he writes it to a church somewhere in the Roman Empire in the 60s AD.

And he writes it with one hope, one goal. He wants these people to grow. And you know by now he wants

them to grow in two ways. He wants them to grow in grace, and he wants them to grow in knowledge.

We're near the end of chapter 3. Today we have only two Sundays left in 2 Peter, this Sunday

and next Sunday. And so we're coming to Peter's conclusion. Remember we've been talking about the

false teachers in chapters 2 and 3. That's why knowledge and grace are so important to Peter,

because both of those things are under attack by the false teachers. And the last two weeks we've

taken a look at the end of the world. Two weeks ago I asked you what is the end of the world going to

look like, and we saw that it's going to include the world being stripped down and then remade.

And then last week we asked not what is the end of the world going to look like, but why do we care?

About the end of the world. Of course the answer was that the end of the world is part of how we

think about and what propels us to live lives of holiness and godliness. Peter is finishing his

letter now, and he's going to give us his final thoughts. In fact, we already kind of saw one of

them in verse 14, because one of his final thoughts is that we would be diligent to be found without spot

or blemish. Now we're moving on to verses 15 through 17. And in 15 through 18, the very end to this

letter we're going to see two basic thoughts that Peter gives us. This week it's going to be negative,

next week's positive. In other words, this week it's what we don't do, next week it's what we do do.

This week, don't be carried away. Verse 17. Next week, verse 18, grow.

Now of course we understand why he would tell us not to be carried away, right? Because we've seen in the

last two chapters we have these false teachers. So we want to make sure if there's false teaching,

we're not taken in by it. However, there's a problem that comes up in this section. We've seen

right at the beginning of chapter 3 that we look to the Bible as our ultimate authority,

but what happens when people look to the Bible as their ultimate authority and come to different

conclusions about it? How do we know that something is false teaching or not? How do we know if someone

is, what Peter refers to here, as twisting? There are some things, verse 16 he tells us,

that the unstable twist to their own destruction. And so we see this principle here, people twist

the scriptures. How do we know when that's happening? What do we do with the fact that many

people read the Bible and come to all sorts of different conclusions? What do we do with all

the different denominations? In fact, if you were to Google right now, any pastor who's prominent,

and then add the words false teacher, there's probably someone out there who thinks he's a false

teacher. It's not hard to find. In fact, that's what happens when you become famous. Someone attacks you as a

false teacher. And so how do we sort through all that? What do we do with that? How can we avoid

twisted interpretations? How can we stand firm? I might add another question to this. How are we

supposed to pick a church? How do we know this is a church that's going to allow us to stand firm,

that we're not being taught things that are false and incorrect? Now, you might be thinking,

why would I need to know that? I've already picked a church. I trust the doctrine, hopefully,

of this church. I don't listen to other teachers. Well, I want you to think about a few things.

First of all, some of you are going to move. I'm going to say something shocking and radical.

In five years, many of us won't be here. When you move, you may have to pick a new church.

I also want you to do the thought experiment of how many people in this room will be here in five years?

How many of you were here five years ago?

What does it take to keep a church on track, teaching the right doctrine?

Well, it takes us over and over again, time and time again, returning to what it is that we believe,

protecting what God has given us in his word.

And so it's with that that we're going to head into this section. Now, sometimes when we head into

tougher sections like this one, I give you my strategy coming up, and here's our strategy going in.

We're not going to talk about verse 15. The reason we're not going to talk about verse 15 is we've

already covered it earlier in this chapter. It's just talking about the idea that God's delay in

coming is not a delay, but it's due to his patience. We covered that extensively earlier in chapter 3.

What we are going to do is focus on verses 16 and 17, and we're going to look at two things.

First of all, number one, there are people who twist the scriptures.

There are people who twist the Bible. Number two, we need to stand firm.

Those are the two things we're going to look at this morning. Some people twist the scriptures.

We need to stand firm against that. I'm going to give you a little bit of explanation

and a lot of application. And so as with that, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

We're going to start at verse 15, and as we come to this, you can turn in your Bible.

It's printed near the end of your worship guide. Maybe you can bring it up on your phone.

Regardless of where you are reading, remember that this is God's word.

And Proverbs chapter 30 verse 5 tells us that every word of God proves true.

Proverbs 30:5

He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

And so that's why we read now, starting at verse 15.

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you

according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks of them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand,

which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people

and lose your own stability.

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you again for your word that you've given to us.

And we ask you again for your help, that you would speak clearly through your word,

that you would show us our need for your grace and the gospel,

that you'd show us how you meet us at that point of need,

and most of all, that you would show us Jesus Christ,

that we would see Him as more beautiful and more glorious than we did before we came here this morning.

We thank you that we don't have to earn these things from you or prove anything to you,

but instead we ask simply in the name of our mighty Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you are a runner or a cyclist or you're someone who likes to hike,

you might be familiar with the phone app called Strava.

And what this app does, it's all around the world,

and it's an app that allows people to track their activity.

So if you go out, turn it on, everyone can see how many miles you went,

how fast you are going, they can pull up your exact route and see where you ran.

And so people enjoy this, right?

It's sort of its own form of social media for people to encourage each other

and impress each other with what it is that they're doing to stay active.

Now, if we have this, of course, there's a tremendous amount of data

about where people are out doing all sorts of activities.

And a couple years ago, in 2018, Strava, this app,

decided they were going to release a heat map.

In other words, they were releasing a map of the world

that shows the places where people were using their map

and the routes that they were taking.

Now, some of you might realize where this is going.

If you're in the military,

there was a lot of heat in places that the U.S. government

did not want anyone to know about.

There were soldiers going out on secret army bases,

forward operating bases,

and they were using this app and recording their activity.

And suddenly, those installations were exposed to the world.

In fact, there were some CIA black sites that became public.

People were at these sites.

They decided to go for a run, recorded it on their watch.

Now, this happened to occur mostly to West.

It wasn't just the U.S.

There were some other militaries that got exposed by this.

And surprise, surprise, it was mostly Western armies

who fell prey to this.

Turns out that the Taliban,

when they go out on their exercise runs,

they don't turn on their app to track it

so they can share it with other jihadis.

And so the military world was very embarrassed by this

because their secret installations had been exposed.

It also highlights something good for us, right?

A heat map shows us where people have gone

over and over and over again.

It shows us what's reliable.

If there's a place where people are running

over and over again,

that must be a good route, right?

That must be a place we can trust.

Either for good or for bad,

heat maps show us where there's a focus,

where there's something that happens

by people over and over again.

As we come to this passage,

we have two principles.

Remember I told you in our principle,

our first one is that there are people

who twist the scriptures.

Verse 16, we're talking about Paul.

He says there's things that Paul writes

that are hard to understand.

Many of us agree with that.

And there are some things in these letters

that are hard to understand,

which the ignorant and unstable

twist to their own destruction.

In other words, there are people

who interpret the Bible in a way that's wrong.

And it's not just that it's wrong,

it's dangerous.

And so that raises a question for us.

How do we know if the Bible is being interpreted

in a way that's dangerous or not?

Who should we trust?

Who should we not trust?

And I'm gonna suggest to you this morning

as people who live in 2021,

one of the primary ways that we determine

whether we trust an interpretation of the Bible,

whether we know something's being twisted or not,

is whether or not there's a heat map to back it up.

And I'll explain that to you in a few ways.

First of all, when someone's interpreting the Bible for us,

we should ask ourselves,

when they provide this interpretation, this doctrine,

is this something that the church has agreed about

throughout time and around the world?

Is there heat around this interpretation?

Is this what the church has believed

throughout the centuries?

Is this what the church around the world believes?

If not, we should be suspicious of it.

If not, we should have some humility.

Why is it that we are suddenly smarter

than everyone else who's ever lived?

How are we more competent than other Christians?

How are we the ones who have this special insight

that the Holy Spirit, for some reason,

has never caused anyone else

in the history of Christianity to see?

There needs to be, when we look at doctrines,

when we're assessing whether something's true or false,

there needs to be a heat map around it.

We want to see other Christians at other times

and other places in agreement with us.

And so, I'll give you some examples, right?

Remember, in this letter,

these false teachers are attacking the idea

that Jesus is coming again to judge the world.

They are attacking the idea that there's a place

that's called hell that exists,

that's a real place where people are going.

Well, how do today we counter that?

One of the ways we counter it is we say,

look, that's actually not what the church

has historically believed.

That's not what the church around the world has believed.

That's not what the church throughout history has believed.

And so, this is a novel interpretation, right?

This is something that's been rejected by the church

over and over again.

People will say things like this,

well, that's just your interpretation, right?

Yeah, that is just my interpretation.

It's also the interpretation of the church

throughout the centuries.

So, chew on that.

There's a subset of the heat map as well.

So, we have our heat map when it comes to the church

around the world and throughout history.

We also have our heat map when it comes to

whether there's an overlap between the heat

that someone's giving you and the heat of our culture.

In other words, there's a temptation.

One of the reasons we might take up an interpretation

of the Bible that pulls away from what the church

has normally taught is because our culture

is also attacking that very same truth.

So, for example, it just so happens that we live

in a culture that is very egalitarian

and is obsessed with sexual freedom.

So, surprise, surprise, it might happen

that someone interprets the Bible in such a way

that's very egalitarian and pushes

for all sorts of sexual licentiousness, sexual immorality.

Remember, that's another issue that's huge

in the book of 2 Peter.

Well, we need to be suspicious of that, right?

We can see the heat overlap.

We can see the overlap between what our culture is teaching

and what the interpretation that these people are giving the Bible.

It's very convenient when you come up with a new interpretation

that somehow agrees with the idols of your culture.

So, that's another way we look at the heat map.

We assess whether someone is a false teacher or not.

We assess, remember, we're pulling all of this from verse 16,

whether they're twisting the scriptures or not.

We should be suspicious of interpretations of the Bible

that happen to please and love everything our culture loves.

Now, I'll give you a caveat.

Because we live in a world that's filled with people

who are made in God's image,

there's times when our culture is going to love things

that the Bible also loves.

So, this is not a uniform rule.

I'll give you one example.

Right now, we live in a culture that is very opposed to racism.

Guess what?

The Bible is also very opposed to racism.

So, we don't just say, well, the culture likes this,

therefore, we're going to throw it out, right?

We have to do both heat maps.

What we do is we look and we say,

has the Bible always cared about that?

And we can see, when it comes to races,

God's the one who created diversity in the very beginning,

Genesis 1 and 2.

We see slavery as something that the Bible speaks about,

even in places like Exodus, chapter 21.

Exodus 21 · chapter mention

There's a ban on man stealing.

We see it in the New Testament.

Philemon gives us hints of where the Bible is headed

in terms of these things.

So, we don't always say, well, the culture loves that,

so it's wrong.

But if the culture loves something,

and someone's going to an interpretation

that also loves that,

and it goes against, again, our previous heat map

with the Bible and the church has taught for centuries,

we need to be very suspicious.

That's a sign we're dealing with someone

who is twisting the scriptures.

Another way we can suspect it,

remember, again, these are things that are aligning

with what these false teachers are doing in 2 Peter.

Those are two things they're attacking.

They're attacking Jesus' second coming.

They're attacking the sexual ethics of the Bible,

what Jesus himself taught.

Well, another thing we can do

is we can look at what people have to gain

from their teaching.

So, I had a professor in seminary

who said one test you can do

is see what non-Christians, who are scholars,

believe the Bible is teaching.

Now, this is going to sound a little bit counterintuitive,

but I want you to track the logic with me.

If you're a Christian,

and you believe that the Bible is your authority,

sometimes you have an incentive

to interpret it incorrectly.

Because then you get out of the moral bind, right?

I believe the Bible is authoritative,

so I have an incentive to believe

that it doesn't teach something that's hard,

because then I get out of it.

If someone doesn't believe the Bible is true,

it doesn't really matter

whether the Bible teaches something hard or not.

So, they can say,

yeah, yeah, Paul actually did teach this

about sexual ethics,

and I don't care,

because Paul has no authority in my life.

Right?

There's actually sometimes an integrity

that comes with people who study the Bible

who are not Christians.

Now, I have to be careful about that,

because we've talked about before

in 1 Corinthians 2,

there's some things

only the Holy Spirit can help us understand.

But what this professor pointed out

is that when it comes to hard texts

about gender and sexuality,

people who are non-Christians

are more likely to interpret it

in a traditional way.

Why?

Because they don't really care

what the end result is.

They're still going to do whatever they want.

And so there's a variety of tests,

things that we can use

to figure out where true teaching is.

These are tools that we use

when people come and they say things like,

well, you know,

there's just a variety of ways

of thinking about it.

And that's just your interpretation,

but I have a different interpretation.

Right?

We all enjoy different flavors of ice cream.

And I'm just going to line up

the options of biblical interpretation,

and I'm going to pick the flavor I like most.

Well, no, that's not how the Bible works.

Right?

There's a true interpretation

and a false interpretation.

Now, these false teachers,

as we've seen,

give us another test

for how we identify false teaching,

and that is the teachers

have something to gain from it.

Remember, we saw earlier

these false teachers are greedy.

They are getting money somehow

from their false teaching.

And so that's another question

you can ask when you're trying to discern

whether someone's a false teacher.

Do they have something to gain?

Sometimes this takes two directions.

Either they're loosening

the requirements of Scripture

or they're tightening

the requirements of Scripture.

Someone who's loosening it

has a lot to gain.

They're going to be able

to do whatever they want, right?

They're doing what's called

tickling ears,

so they're going to get a following.

There's people who are going to want

to hear what they have to say

because it will allow them

to do whatever they want.

The other thing false teachers do,

and this is,

so the first example I gave you,

that's what the false teachers

in 2 Peter are doing.

They're loosening

the requirements of the Bible.

Sometimes, though,

false teachers do

the opposite thing.

They increase

the requirements of the Bible.

You might ask,

what does that person

have to gain from it?

They gain a lot of power.

In fact, this is how cults work.

There was a cult,

I won't name,

that was very active

in the 70s and the 80s

and the 90s,

and I was in a Presbyterian church,

and there were some people

who were involved in that cult.

And I've met people since then

who were involved in that cult.

There seemed to be

kind of an overlap

between some of the churches

in our denomination

and this organization.

What they would do

is they would give

very detailed prescriptions

for every element of your life.

They created a new law,

essentially.

And of course,

these teachers gain power from that.

Who are you going to find out

the new law from?

It's going to have to be them.

Who are you going to pay

to find out the new teaching?

It's going to have to be them.

What happens if they're the only ones

with the secret knowledge?

Well, you're going to have

to listen to them, right?

So we're wary of false teachers

when they violate

what I'd call

the narrow gate principle.

What I mean by that is this.

Jesus tells us

in Matthew chapter 7,

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide

and the way is easy

that leads to destruction.

And those who enter it are many.

For the gate is narrow

and the way is hard

that leads to life.

And those who find it are few.

In other words,

the Christian life

is a narrow path.

There are some people

who gain by making it less narrow.

There are some people

who gain by making it more narrow.

That's one of our tests

of false teaching.

So we have a variety of things.

We've got our heat map

we're looking at, right?

Is there a lot of heat

around this teaching

throughout the history

of the church

and around the world?

There's a lot of heat.

There's a chance,

you know, we should probably trust

that interpretation

at some level.

That doesn't make

church history authoritative.

It makes church history a guide.

Gives us some humility

as we interpret scripture.

Remember, scripture

is our absolute authority.

We also need to see

if there's a cultural element

that's causing people

to interpret scripture

in a new way.

That's another kind of heat map.

Is there an overlap

between cultural heat

and that person's

interpretation of scripture?

If so,

we should probably be

a little bit suspicious of it.

Doesn't mean it's always wrong,

but that's going to be

a test for us.

Is it something

that encourages sin?

Is it going to let

this teacher live

a lifestyle that's different

from the Bible,

what the Bible prescribes?

And finally,

we kind of have

this gate principle.

Is this teacher

making the gate

the narrow way super wide,

or are they making

the narrow way even narrower?

Now, you might wonder

what this has to do

with this passage.

What I'm doing

is I'm giving you

a little bit of explanation

and a lot of application.

How we assess

what's twisted scripture

is going to be

slightly different

than the people

receiving this letter

because we don't live

in the 60s AD anymore.

And so we actually

have the privilege

of many years

of church history

to look back on.

We have the privilege

of seeing the Holy Spirit

at work for millennium.

And so we're able

to use this variety

of ways to look

and say,

okay, is this person

twisting scripture?

Is this person

pulling me astray?

And of course,

we see the importance

of doing this

because we're told,

verse 16,

when they twist

the scriptures,

they do it

to their own destruction.

There's a dangerous element

to twisting the Bible.

And so we need

to have these principles

in mind

so that we're not

taken off guard

when someone comes

and wants to try

to pull us away

by some new

and novel teaching.

So we're getting,

again,

at Peter's summary

at the end of his letter.

He's giving us

a negative command

to make sure people

aren't pulled away

by false teaching.

Next week,

he's going to give us

a positive command

that we run after

good teaching.

So that's our first

principle.

Our first principle

is there are people

who twist the scriptures.

There's a variety

of ways that we use

to figure out

whether someone's

twisting the scriptures

or not.

There's a lot of

helpful tests

that we can apply

as we navigate

what's right

and wrong.

I haven't said

everything.

Of course,

there's a lot

of other ways

we could assess

false teaching.

I haven't said

everything,

but I've said something.

Some of those

are the most helpful

low-hanging fruit

for us

when it comes

to figuring out

if someone

is a false teacher.

I'll say this as well.

We've talked about

this before.

In 2 Peter,

false teachers

hate accountability.

So you look

at the heat map,

there's not going

to be a lot

of other people

there keeping tabs

on what they're teaching.

If you're at a church,

there's no transparency

about the finances.

No matter how good

the teaching is,

you should have

some questions.

You're at a church.

This person's

a wonderful teacher,

not accountable

to any denomination,

not accountable

to elders,

not accountable

to other churches.

You should probably

have some questions.

Go back to my reference

about there's something

to gain.

There is something

to gain

by having no accountability.

Okay,

so that's another way

we discern false teachers.

People talk a lot

about the falls

that happen in the church

and the scandals

that have happened recently.

I won't say all of them,

but many of them

have occurred

and been committed

by people who had

little to no accountability.

It's not fail-proof.

It doesn't mean

that someone

with accountability

is always going

to be perfect

or won't have

a scandal.

It just means

the odds

are a lot lower.

So that's our

first principle.

People twist

the scriptures,

beware.

Our second principle,

verse 17,

do not be carried away.

We're told this,

you therefore,

beloved,

knowing this beforehand,

you've been warned,

you know everything

I just told you,

you know there are

people out there

who are looking

to twist the scriptures

for their own gain

and to align

with the culture

around them.

Take care

that you are not

carried away

with the error

of lawless people

and lose your own stability.

So we're aware

of the threat,

we need to make sure

we're on guard

against it.

And that's our

second principle.

Principle one,

people twist the scriptures.

Principle two,

be on guard.

You know there are people

who are looking

to take advantage of you,

don't be carried away.

Don't be fooled,

don't be deceived.

Again,

I'm going to give you

that principle.

We're going to have

a lot of application.

Application one,

simply apply everything

I've already told you.

Think critically

about what people

are teaching

about the Bible.

You should ask yourself,

does this person

have something

to gain from this?

Are they making

the narrow way

less narrow?

Are they making

the narrow way

more narrow?

Is this person,

have they capitulated

to some of the idols

of our culture?

Are they coming up

with an interpretation

that doesn't really appear

on the heat map

of Christianity?

It's not always good

for someone to tell you

something new

and exciting.

Sometimes it's very helpful

for someone to tell you

something old

and boring.

I'll give you

some other ways

that we can stay

on guard,

we cannot be carried away.

One of them comes

to the way

that we pick our churches

and the way we run

our churches.

The lowest hanging fruit

would probably be this,

do they believe

that the Bible

is God's word?

Does the church

that you're in

believe that it has

authority,

that it's without error?

Is the church

that you're in

holding fast

to that truth?

Remember,

we're talking about

twisting scriptures.

One of the first steps

in going downhill

is believing

that the Bible

is something

that's a suggestion.

It's man's record

of his experience

with God,

not God's actual words.

So we need to hold

that as a foundational truth.

There are churches,

right,

that we disagree with

on a bunch

of secondary issues,

and we also have

a lot of unity

with them

because we agree

on primary issues.

One of them

is the authority

of the word of God.

What does the church

that you're in,

what does the church

that you're picking,

believe about the Bible?

Okay,

I'm going to give you

a second way

that we stand firm,

and this is something

we practice in our church.

Does this church

have consecutive,

or what's called

sequential,

expository preaching?

In other words,

does this church

pick books of the Bible

and preach everything

in that book?

That's why we're going

through the book

of 2 Peter slowly.

We've had multiple sermons

on various sections

because we're committed

to preaching

through entire books

of the Bible.

That protects us

from being carried away

in a couple ways.

First of all,

we can't avoid hard things.

Almost every book

of the Bible

includes sections

that are really hard

to preach.

Almost every book

of the Bible includes,

maybe I could say

every book of the Bible,

includes commands

that we don't want to hear.

When we commit

to preaching

through a whole book,

we're committing

to not being carried away.

We're committing

to not cherry picking

only the passages

that we want to hear.

Remember I told you earlier

when we talked about

the false teachers,

their negative

was that they were

downplaying hard doctrines

or denying them.

Our positive

is to make sure

that we're teaching

challenging

and difficult doctrines.

We know that we're

not being carried away.

We know that we're

in a place that's firm

and stable.

Not 100% guarantee,

but our odds

are much higher

when we're in a place

where the Bible

is regularly preached

through an entire book.

It's not always exciting.

We have passages

that are more exciting

than others,

and it's also

how we expose ourselves

to the whole counsel

of God.

Another way,

is there a confession

of faith?

Does this church

summarize their doctrine

somehow,

or is it just up

to the pastor each week

to get up front

and decide

kind of what he believes

from that passage?

That goes along

with there being

accountability.

accountability.

Is the church

personality based?

If it's based around

one person

and their ideas,

that's also dangerous,

right?

That person could decide

they believe

something different.

There's a reason,

there's thought

and intention

behind a lot of the

things that we do

as a church.

There's a reason

that I don't pray

the congregational

prayer every week.

We have elders

coming forward.

A variety of elders

pray the congregational

prayer.

We do that intentionally

because we want

to communicate

that there's a lot

of spiritual leaders

in this church.

There's not one

spiritual leader.

And we do that

because it's

spiritually healthy.

It protects us

from being carried away.

We're held accountable

to one another.

There are multiple

shepherds in this church,

right?

This church doesn't

rise or fall on me.

If we have a

personality based church

that's a dangerous place,

it's a place

where we're more likely

to be carried away.

I'll simply say this,

in all of those things,

those are our core,

our foundation,

right?

There's lots of things

that make churches

attractive.

Lots of reasons

that people are drawn

to a church.

Maybe there's good music.

It's a wonderful thing.

We want good music.

Maybe there's a wonderful nursery.

That's a wonderful thing.

We want a wonderful nursery.

But the question is this,

at the end of the day,

is this a church

where I will be able

to stand firm?

Or is this a church

where I'll be carried away?

I want you to think

about it this way.

If you're buying a car,

I think I've used

this illustration before,

there's a lot of wonderful

things about a car

that you might buy.

It might have wonderful

cup holders that can hold

the largest cup from 7-Eleven.

It might have heated seats,

which is wonderful

in the Colorado winters.

It might have

wonderful upholstery.

There might be tons

of storage room.

It might have a hatchback

in the back,

so it's easier to throw in

big packages

from certain stores.

Maybe it's a pickup truck

and you love the bed.

But at the end of the day,

the question is this,

can the car drive?

Can it take you

from point A to point B?

If not,

nothing else matters.

There are many

wonderful things

that we want to be true

of our church, right?

We want to have

wonderful music.

We want to have

a great nursery.

We want to have

vibrant community.

All of those things matter

and at the end of the day,

the question is this,

is this a faithful church?

Are we holding true

to the Word of God?

Are we teaching

the same things

that the Bible teaches?

I'll just say,

as an aside,

some people will be

in churches

that are unfaithful

and they'll say,

well, I'm just staying there

just to be a witness.

I'm just going to try

to change things

from the inside.

Don't do that.

Don't overestimate

your ability

to not be carried away.

There's a social element,

right?

There's a social element

to what we believe.

We can't help

but be influenced

by the people around us.

So we want to be

in a church.

Don't overestimate

your ability

to stand in the wind.

In terms of churches,

I'll also say this,

there's no perfect church.

So it's not that

we're in a church

that does everything correctly.

It's that we're a church

that holds true

to our primary doctrines.

In fact,

we have a confession

of faith at this church

and that confession

of faith says explicitly

the purest churches

under heaven

are subject

to both mixture

and error.

So we believe

as a church,

part of our confession

of faith

is that we've gotten

some things wrong.

If we knew

what those were,

we would correct them.

Right?

No one of us

understands the Bible

perfectly.

No one of us

gets everything right.

And there's a path

that's correct.

We can stay away

from false teaching.

Okay, so both are true.

We don't demand perfection.

We also look

for help.

Okay, finally,

standing firm,

you've picked

the right church.

What do you need

to do next?

You need to show up.

We get strong

little by little.

You know

that you can build,

you can grow fat

in a week.

If I decided this week

that I wanted

to gain 10 pounds,

I'm confident

I could make it happen.

Like, I don't need

to think very carefully

about what my plan is.

I'd go to Walmart,

I'd buy a ton

of ice cream,

and I would just,

I'd be disciplined.

You know,

I'd be focused every day,

making sure I ate enough.

I could probably

show up next Sunday

and have gained 10 pounds.

I don't think

it would be that hard.

What if I wanted

to gain 10 pounds

of muscle?

It would be impossible

for me to do that

in a week.

There's no way.

The same is true,

brothers and sisters,

for us as Christians.

We become strong

little by little

week after week.

We become strong

as we are exposed

week after week

as we're fed

over and over

by what God

has to say

in His Word.

We do not come to church

to have our ears tickled.

We're not here only

when we're in exciting

passage of the Bible.

I want you to think

for a second

you're having

a brain surgeon

operate on you

and you find out

this surgeon

only showed up

for the exciting

classes in med school.

And when he found out

they were covering

a topic that was boring

or he sort of already

felt like he knew it,

he just skipped out.

Do you want to see

that surgeon?

Life is a dangerous place.

We need all

of God's counsel

as much as we can

get on our journey.

If we do not want

to be carried away

then we know

that repetition

is what gives us strength.

This is what

every bodybuilder knows,

right?

You don't get strong

by going to the gym

once a month.

That's not how

I'm going to build

10 pounds of muscle.

I get strong

showing up

week after week

doing the work

with a discipline

and a practice

and a focus.

not because

I'm a legalist

but because

I know

that is how

I stand

firm.

And so the same

is true for us.

We are not

carried away

when we know

the whole counsel

of God.

We know the whole

counsel of God

when we're in a church

that is giving us

that week after week

when it's exciting,

when it's boring,

when it's new,

when it's repetitive,

when it's things

we don't know,

when it's things

we do know.

We are coming back

because we want

this to be true of us.

We want to take care

that we're not

carried away

with the error

of lawless people.

Of course,

our Lord Jesus

tells us the same thing.

He tells us

in Matthew chapter 7

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

that building our lives

on His word

is like building

a house on a rock.

He says,

Everyone then

who hears these words

of mine and does them

will be like a wise man

who built his house

on the rock.

And the rain fell

and the floods came

and the winds blew

and beat on that house

but it did not fall

because it had been

founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears

these words of mine

and does not do them

will be like a foolish man

who built his house

on the sand.

And the rain fell

and the floods came

and the winds blew

and beat against that house

and it fell

and great was the fall of it.

We know what the rock is.

Jesus has given us

the incentive,

the motivation,

the power that we need

to follow His commands,

to not be carried away,

to not be taken in

by things that are twisted

because we know

we want to be on the rock.

There's all kinds of people

all the time

who are trying to tell you

what the next big investment

is going to be, right?

You might see these ads.

If you had invested

in Amazon.com in 1999,

you would be

this kind of millionaire.

If you'd invested

in Walmart in 1992,

you'd be now worth this.

And if you pay us

the appropriate amount

of money,

we'll tell you

the next stock to pick,

right?

Those are predictions.

What God gives us

is not a prediction

but a promise.

If we knew now,

if we knew then

what we knew now,

right,

we would have invested.

We already know now

what will be true

in the future.

That God

and his word

is the rock

that we build upon.

How much more

should we be eager

to build for it?

How much more

should we invest in it?

How much more

should we want

to stand firm?

There's a couple

of movies

that have come out

recently.

One of them

is called

The Dawn Wall.

The other is called

Free Solo.

And they're about

two climbers,

each of whom

is trying to climb

El Capitan

and Yosemite.

And in Dawn Wall

it tells the story

of Johnny Caldwell

and he takes

seven years

to figure out

the appropriate route

to actually be able

to climb this wall

all the way to the top.

Now if you're going

to climb this wall,

which route

are you going to take?

Are you going to take

the route that's

already been planned out

or are you going

to take a new

novel route?

Are you going to go

try to figure out

your own path?

Brothers and sisters,

when it comes

to the Christian life

there are people

promoting and following

all sorts of routes.

But when we follow

after our Lord

and Savior,

Jesus Christ,

what we do

is we take hold

of and grasp

the trusted

and firm,

reliable route.

The route

that we find

in God

and His Word

that has been proved

by Christians

before us

for millennia

and around the world.

We go with

what is true

because we want

the route

that is proven

and safe.

We want to build

our lives

not on sand

but on the rock.

So that's why

we take care

that we're not

carried away

with the error

of lawless people

and lose

our own stability.

I invite you

to pray with me.

Our Father in Heaven,

we thank You

that Your Word

is our safe route.

God,

we ask that You

would protect us

and this church

from false teaching

and that You

would grow us up

to love Your Word

and to know it

when it tells us

things that are easy

and popular

and when it tells us

things that are hard

and unpopular.

We ask that You

would do this

by helping us

to look to Jesus

who we know

is our rock

and our foundation

and we ask these things

in His mighty name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.