Day 34: 40 Days Through The New Testament

Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to 40 Days Through the New Testament. This podcast is led by Pastor Rusty Small at Liberty Baptist Church in Appomattox, Virginia. Listen as he guides you through all 27 books of the New Testament in preparation for Easter. Get your Bible ready. Here's today's message. Well, we begin today the letter of 2 Peter. And one of the things that you'll notice in upcoming readings is 2 Peter. has a great deal of resonance with Jude. And so oftentimes Jude and 2 Peter are studied together because they share, as you will see, some of the same themes and oftentimes some of the same examples and sometimes some of the same words. And so you'll want to keep an eye out for Jude after you study. 2 Peter because there's sometimes when we read the New Testament we go, have I heard this before? And the answer is yes. 2 Peter and Jude have a great deal of affinity. 2 Peter is only three chapters long and kind of each chapter has its own key idea as many of the biblical writers write their last letter. I think oftentimes they're concerned as oftentimes older ministers are concerned as they peer into the future and they think, what will be after I'm gone? And 2 Peter would indeed be Simon Peter's last letter. And so he looks on the horizon and he sees opportunity, no doubt, but he also sees, well, threats to the church, false teaching. that threatens the church. And so he's going to very straightforwardly address that issue. Before Simon Peter is gonna pick up the topic of false teaching in 2 Peter chapter two, he is going to talk about growth in godliness. Now a key theme that just keeps getting pushed in the general epistles. which are James 1 and 2 Peter. 1, 2, 3 John and Jude, those are the classic general epistles. And like I said, sometimes Hebrews gets lumped into that group in our orderings. It's the theme of faithfulness, growth in godliness, genuine faith, faith tested that is more pure than gold. It is a very important focus on the fruit of faith. And here in 2 Peter 1, listen to verse 3, His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these, He has given us very great and precious promises so that through them you may share in the divine nature. escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to point out a few things. Verse three, His divine power, God's divine power. And then we get to verse four, another important phrase, you may share in the divine nature. Here's the deal, it is God's power through us that gives us the ability to live godly lives. And Simon Peter says, by His divine nature, or rather, His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness. And a Christian should not just be known for their faith, but they should be known for their progression of faithfulness through the adding of virtues. Now, I think This is not a progression per se. It's more of like, here are the virtues that appear. It's not like you get faith and then you get goodness and then you get knowledge and then you get self-control. I think as you progress in your faith, these virtues appear. I also wanna note that 2 Peter has a lot of good things to say about the Bible itself. And notice near the end of chapter one, it says, verse 20, above all, you know this, no prophecy of scripture comes from the prophets own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the will of man. Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. As we're going through the New Testament and I'm saying Simon Peter said this and Paul said that. but it is Simon, Peter, and Paul and the gospel writers who say scripture is given in inspiration of God, that the words provided were not humanly contrived, they were divinely given. Now chapter two points out false teachers and here's Simon Peter's big point. In every generation, whether Old Testament or New Testament, And he would say even today, there are always people, there are always teachers who can mislead you. And he says, chapter two, verse one, for indeed, there were indeed false prophets among the people, like in the past, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master that brought them and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved ways. The way of truth will be maligned because of them. They will exploit you in their greed with made up stories. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not idle and their destruction does not sleep. So I want you to know a few things. What are some key contours? Number one, a denial of Jesus. By the way, these are false teachers, not outside the church, inside the church. They deny the master who bought them, they deny Jesus. They exploit you in their greed. They're in it for the money. And oftentimes, which will be present, they will lessen morality and say, well, you live as you want to live. The litmus test here is Simon Peter gives a whole litany of Old Testament examples, like look at all these people in the Old Testament. They did this. And he's like, and here's what you need to be looking for in the present. We get to chapter three, and one of the ways that you could tell people, live however you want, it doesn't really matter, is if you deny future judgment. And there are those in 2 Peter 3 going, I don't think Jesus is coming back. I don't think God is coming in judgment. And so since that's the case, we can live as we want. And Simon Peter says, no. He says, just like in the days of Noah, where people thought it will not rain on the earth, there will be no judgment. And then all of a sudden there is the flood and judgment comes. He says, in the same way in the future, people will say, I don't think judgment's coming. And then it will come. God will not judge the world with water. The second time Simon Peter says he will judge it by fire. And I want you to catch this analogy because Simon Peter uses fire analogy in 1 Peter chapter one and now he is using it again in 2 Peter chapter three. Listen carefully, the language of fire in Peter is not the language of annihilation. It is the language of purification. And so the believer who goes through a trial will be refined more pure than gold and the purpose, water and fire are purifying agents. And when God comes in judgment and he brings fire to the earth, the fire deals with, you ready for this? Sin, it purifies the world from that which is wrong. and out of the crackling fires of judgment come, Simon Peter says, new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, the way the world was meant to be because sin and death have been fully resolved. He says, because of that day the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat, but based on his promise we wait for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness. dwells. And again, the future, new heavens and new earth call us to godliness and progression and godliness in the present, an awareness that there are people who could mislead us and we should be able to identify them. We should not listen to the chorus. God's not coming back, judgment day's never coming. He came before, it will come again and we await. the glorious restoration of all things on the new heaven and the new earth. Thank you for listening to this podcast, A Ministry of Liberty Baptist Church. We pray that this is an encouragement to study God's Word and that you will join us for the next episode.